University of Florida Homepage

Awards

Image of Deborah HendrixUniversity of Florida Superior Staff Accomplishment Award for Deborah Hendrix, 2016

Deborah Hendrix is widely acknowledged as one of the most outstanding educators in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; she has instructed hundreds of graduate and undergraduate students as well as faculty in digital humanities production and editing techniques during this review period. Deborah is by far the single most often consulted person in the College Liberal Arts and Sciences on editing, production, and preservation of digital data and story telling. Deborah provides expert hands-on-training for numerous UF undergraduate seminars working on final class documentary projects. Units across the campus also frequently request that Deborah film and record high-profile and world-historical guest speakers on campus at UF. Deborah is SPOHP’s expert on digital processing and archival methods and our main connection to digital archivists at Smathers Libraries. In this capacity, Deborah is responsible for managing SPOHP’s 7,500+ collection of oral history interviews and making these ultimately accessible to students, scholars and members of the general public. Deborah does a superb job of answering questions from scholars from across the world who have queries about UF’s Oral History holdings. Deborah’s expertise in digital humanities is sought out by organizations across the country and she has served on several national Oral History Association committees.

 

Image of Tamarra JenkinsUniversity of Florida Superior Staff Accomplishment Award for Tamarra Jenkins, 2016

Tamarra Jenkins is widely recognized as an outstanding employee at the University of Florida. In fact, she was nominated for a Superior Staff Accomplishment Award by staff at the Bob Graham Center for Public Service. During Tamarra’s tenure as SPOHP’s office manager, our program has received three national academic awards—this is unprecedented in a unit of SPOHP’s size, and Tamarra has played an integral role in the advancement of SPOHP’s national stature. Tamarra is often the first person from SPOHP that new students and members of the public encounter and as such, she has contributed enormously towards SPOHP’s mission of gathering, preserving and promoting living histories of individuals from all walks of life. Tamarra manages the schedules of approximately 50 students, staff, visiting faculty in order to maximize SPOHP’s ability to serve the UF campus and broader communities. Tamarra manages a SPOHP’s budget , a large amount of contract invoices as well as SPOHP’s ongoing development and fundraising that sustain our ability to provide educational services to faculty, students and staff at UF including vital experiential field work opportunities. Tamarra provides excellent guidance to graduate students, undergraduates as well as to visiting faculty, volunteers, and members of the public who rely on SPOHP to fulfill UF’s goals in teaching, service and research.

deborahVeterans for Peace Helmet Award, 2015

In Fall 2015, the Gainesville chapter of Veterans for Peace awarded Deborah Hendrix their annual Peace Helmet Award at December’s Winter Solstice Concert.

As the award narrative details, “Deborah Hendrix is known in Gainesville as the People’s Videographer. She has produced countless hours of documentary film programs on issues such as immigrants’ rights, environmental history, African American studies and many other topics. Working into the wee hours of the evening and during the weekends, Deborah has filmed numerous events for Gainesville Veterans for Peace including our Peace Poetry programs and public lectures on the anti-war movement.”

Browse Deborah’s videography for Veterans for Peace at SPOHP’s YouTube Channel. Photo from the Veterans History Project.

Image of Oral History Association Elizabeth B. Mason Award, 2015Oral History Association Elizabeth B. Mason Award, 2015

In Fall 2015, the Oral History Association recognized the mini-grant partnership between SPOHP and George A. Smathers Libraries for the “Freedom Summer Oral History and Library Curation Project” in 2013-2014 with its 2015 Elizabeth B. Mason Award for outstanding research accomplishments. Coordinator Sarah Blanc accepted the award in October 2015 with project staff member Diana Dombrowski at the OHA conference in Tampa, FL.

The Oral History Association serves as the principal membership organization for people committed to the value of oral history. With an international membership, OHA serves a broad and diverse audience including teachers, students, community historians, archivists, librarians, and filmmakers. In addition to fostering communication among its members, the OHA encourages standards of excellence in the collection, preservation, dissemination and uses of oral testimony.

The Mississippi Freedom Project is an archive of oral history interviews conducted with veterans of the civil rights movement and notable residents of the Mississippi Delta, centering on activism and organizing in partnership with the Sunflower County Civil Rights Organization in Sunflower, Mississippi. The 2013-2014 grant with Smathers Libraries enabled SPOHP to process and finalize over 100 transcripts for the University of Florida Digital Collections, the creation of Wikipedia project guide, and publication of the edited oral history volume “I Never Will Forget,(PDF)” distributed for the 50th anniversary of Freedom Summer in the Mississippi Delta.

For more information about this collection, visit the Mississippi Freedom Project. Photo courtesy of Rosie King.

Image of the Society of American Archivists Diversity Award, 2015Society of American Archivists Diversity Award, 2015

In Spring 2015, the Society of American Archivists recognized SPOHP’s ongoing commitment to social justice research initiatives, including the recent Latina/o Diaspora in the Americas Project, with the 2015 Diversity Award. Founding coordinator Génesis Lara accepted the award in August 2015 at the SAA conference in Cleveland, OH.

The Society of American Archivists is one of the largest academic professional associations in North America, with over 5,000 individual and institutional members. The Diversity Award recognizes outstanding contributions in advancing diversity within the archives profession, SAA, or the archival record. Awardees demonstrate significant achievement in the form of activism, education, outreach, publication, service, or other initiatives in the archives field based on the long-term impact on promoting diversity.

Each semester, LDAP conducts new oral histories related to Latinos in the Global South on themes including identity, immigration reform, labor conditions, education and civil rights. Major topics of focus include immigration history in the Americas, Nuestras Historias with Hispanic-Latino UF alumni, and the Tucson Ethnic Studies program.

For more information about this collection, visit the Latina/o Diaspora in the Americas Project.

University of Florida Institute of Hispanic/Latino Cultures Best Cultural Event Award, 2014

In April 2014, UF’s Institute of Hispanic/Latino Cultures awarded SPOHP “Best Cultural Event” at the annual Noche de Gala ceremony for production of the documentary, “Siempre Adelante: A Look at Faith and the Immigrant Struggle.”

The Institute of Hispanic/Latino Cultures advocates on behalf of Hispanic Latina/o populations and offers support to the University of Florida and the Gainesville community through various programs, resources, and networking opportunities in order to help facilitate cultural awareness, social justice, and empowerment.

The documentary “Siempre Adelante,” produced by SPOHP Technology Coordinator Deborah Hendrix and Sebastian X. Muñoz-Medina. The film sheds light on the immigrant community of Alachua County and the daily struggles they encounter, aiming to inspire audiences to participate in the movement for immigrant rights and to inform the Gainesville community of the struggle that occurs so close to home.

For more information about this collection, visit the Latina/o Diaspora in the Americas Project.

Image fo the Oral History Association Stetson Kennedy Vox Populi (Voice of the People) Award, 2013Oral History Association Stetson Kennedy Vox Populi (“Voice of the People”) Award, 2013

In October 2013, the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program was recognized by the Oral History Association with the Stetson Kennedy Vox Populi (“Voice of the People”) Award for outstanding achievement in using oral history to create a more humane and just world.

Teaching partner Falana McDaniels, of the McComb Legacies Project at McComb High School in Mississippi, was also awarded the Martha Ross Teaching Award.

The Stetson Kennedy Vox Populi (“Voice of the People”) annual award is presented each year at the OHA annual meeting, and honors individuals and organizations who use oral history as a means of furthering social justice as well as those collecting oral histories of social justice advocates. Named in honor of Stetson Kennedy, a pioneer oral historian whose work has been an important tool for advocacy on behalf of human rights, the Vox Populi Award was created to recognize work that has made a difference in the world, while advancing our sense of the power of oral history in the process.

SPOHP was awarded the Vox Populi award for a broad array of outreach and research initiatives, including public history programs, our community-based workshops, and SPOHP’s podcast series exploring the perspectives of organizers, anti-war veterans, immigrant activists, and reformers. SPOHP preserves the personal narratives of previously marginalized communities such as Seminole, Cherokee, Creek, and Lumbee Indians in the southeastern United States, and also promotes the experiences working people in the South, including organizers of Mississippi’s civil rights movement, laborers in the citrus industry, physical plant operatives, water management engineers, nurses, teachers, and active members of various labor unions in Right-to-Work Florida.

The award is co-sponsored by the Stetson Kennedy Foundation, a non-profit foundation dedicated to human rights, racial and social justice, environmental stewardship, and the preservation and growth of folk culture.


Recognizing Community Partners

Image of the David Jones, Oral History Association Martha Ross Teaching Award, 2015David Jones, Oral History Association Martha Ross Teaching Award, 2015

In Fall 2015, David Jones, American history teacher at Eastside High School in Gainesville, was awarded the Martha Ross Teaching Award from the Oral History Association for his longtime work teaching International Baccalaureate American history students to conduct local oral histories.

In 2013, SPOHP, the UF Center for European Studies, and Mr. Jones’s IB Junior Class collaborated on the year-long oral history project “Getting to Know You: Our Neighbors of European Heritage Oral History Exhibit,” which displayed at the Thomas Center. Students interviewed 32 individuals who had firsthand experiences of some of the most significant events in European history over the past 70 years, from the Spanish Civil War through the end of the Cold War. Jones has archived most of the students’ projects and now displays the new projects on the high school’s IB Oral History Project page.

Read about Mr. Jones and his ongoing project work with students: “Eastside High School Teacher Wins Oral History Award,” by Kelsey Jordan, WUFT, November 3, 2015. Photo courtesy of Jacqueline Johnson.

Image of the Falana McDaniel, Oral History Association Martha Ross Teaching Award, 2013Falana McDaniel, Oral History Association Martha Ross Teaching Award, 2013

In Fall 2013, McComb Legacies teacher Falana McDaniel was awarded the Martha Ross Teaching Award from the Oral History Association for her efforts to bring civil rights oral history into the classrooms of McComb High School in Mississippi.

McComb Legacies is a youth leadership program that provides middle and high school youth with the opportunity to learn about, document, and share their local civil rights movement and labor history. Participants also use the lessons learned from history to examine and take action to improve their world today. McCombLegacies.org is a collaborative effort of the McComb School District and community members of the Local History Advisory Committee who are committed to the research, documentation, and sharing of McComb’s history.

In 2013, McComb Legacies joined the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program on the annual Mississippi Freedom Project Delta research trip, where participants were inspired to create student-led voting rights conference at McComb High School. SPOHP attended the conference and brought a research team conduct oral history interviews in collaboration with McComb Legacies students, and returned later in the year on the 2014 annual trip to continue local work.

Read about Ms. McDaniel and at McComb Legacies Project blog, “Congratulations to Falana McDaniel and the Samuel Proctor Program,” October 10, 2013. Photo courtesy of Lisa Serrano.

For additional information, contact SPOHP, call the offices at (352) 392-7168, and connect with us online today.