About SPOHP

History of the Program

Oral history is an invaluable method of gathering and preserving the past through interviews with participants. At the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program, we believe that oral history is an indispensable method of studying the past. Listening carefully to first-person narratives can change the way we understand history—not to mention the way we approach scholarly questions as well as contemporary public policy debates. The passionate and poignant stories found in many oral history interviews serve as a great tool to excite and encourage people of all ages to study the past.

Dr. Samuel Proctor (University of Florida Historian and Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus) founded the Oral History Program at the University of Florida in November 1967. SPOHP is dedicated to building on Dr. Proctor's legacy.

Dr. Samuel Proctor's biography....Read more...

Advisory Board

To further campus and community involvement and guide us into the future, SPOHP has established an Advisory Board whose members are drawn from UF and the broader public history community.

Ida Altman
History; Women's Studies
ialtman@history.ufl.edu

Efrain Barradas
Latino Studies
barradas@rll.ufl.edu

Joel Buchanan
African-American History; Special Collections
bhistory@ufl.edu

Michelle Campos
History
campos@history.ufl.edu

David Colburn
Askew Institute; Civil Rights
colburn@ufl.edu

Jim Cusick
Special Collections
jgcusick@ufl.edu

Jack Davis
Florida/Southern/Environmental History
davisjac@ufl.edu

Stephanie Evans
African-American Women's Studies
drevans@ufl.edu

Tricia Hilliard-Nunn
Matheson Museum, Inc.
makare@mindspring.com

Jack Kugelmass
Director of the Center for Jewish Studies
JMKugelmass@aol.com

Bill Link
20th Century Political/Southern History
linkwa@ufl.edu

Louise Newman
Women/Gender History
lnewman@history.ufl.edu