Samuel Proctor Oral History Program

Julian Pleasants Travel Award

On a bi-yearly basis, the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program grants a researcher with the Julian Pleasants Travel Award, designed to promote cutting edge oral history research at the University of Florida and recognize innovative scholarship. The award was created in honor of Dr. Julian Pleasants, Director Emeritus of the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program and longtime Professor of History at the University of Florida.

The award includes a stipend of $1,000. Competition is open to graduate students, faculty, and independent scholars at UF and throughout the United States.

Application: Interested applicants for the 2017 cycle should contact Dr. Paul Ortiz for more information.

2015 Pleasants Travel Award: Jody Noll

Jody Noll (opens in new tab) is a Ph.D. student at Georgia State University in Athens, Georgia. He received his BA in History at the University of South Florida (opens in new tab), and his MA in History from Auburn University (opens in new tab).

In Summer 2015, the Pleasants Award supported Noll’s work on his doctoral dissertation, where he explored dynamic interplay between public sector unionism, American race relations, and the rise of new conservatism. Noll conducted research in archival collections related to the strike at the P.K. Yonge Library of Florida History (opens in new tab) in the University of Florida’s George A. Smather Libraries (opens in new tab). He also conducted oral history interviews with teachers who worked in the state of Florida during the strike.

• Watch Mr. Noll’s project discussion about the Teachers Strike Oral History Project (opens in new tab).

 

2013 Pleasants Travel Award: Dr. Regennia Williams

Dr. Regennia Williams is an associate professor of History at Cleveland State University (opens in new tab) in Cleveland, Ohio. She received her B.A.s in Liberal Studies and Urban Studies, as well as her M.P.A. in Public Administration, from Cleveland State University. She earned her Ph.D. in Social History and Policy from Case Western Reserve University (opens in new tab).

In 2013, Dr. Williams conducted research in the Zora Neale Hurston papers at the University of Florida. This research supported her work on articles for a special Zora Neale Hurston issue of The Journal of Traditions and Beliefs (opens in new tab), a scholarly publication she launched in the 2009 – 2010 academic year.  This publication is a follow-up activity for the September 2012 “Watching God and Reading Hurston” International Academic Conference (opens in new tab), which commemorated the 75^th publication anniversary of Their Eyes Were Watching God (opens in new tab) in 2012 – 2013.

Dr. Williams plans to develop new curriculum materials based on University of Florida manuscripts related to the life, art, and legacy of Zora Neale Hurston at the University of Florida, including Hurston’s work with Stetson Kennedy on the Florida Writers Project. The new curriculum materials will encourage history students and pre-service and in-service teachers to use maps, books, letters, etc. to explore the African roots of American cultures and contribute to “An Atlas of the Cultural History of the African Diaspora as Documented by Zora Neale Hurston,” a forthcoming online publication that will consider the writer’s work throughout the American South and in Harlem, Haiti, Jamaica, Honduras, and other places in the African Diaspora.

For information on Williams’ previous online publications, please visit her website at Cleveland Memory (opens in new tab) and the Cleveland Chautauqua Blog (opens in new tab). For more information, see the full SPOHP press release, “Dr. Regennia N. Williams is SPOHP’s 2013 Julian Pleasants Travel Award Scholar.” (opens in new tab)

 

2012 Pleasants Travel Award: Sarah McNamara

Sarah McNamara is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (opens in new tab), where she studies United States history with a focus on immigration, civil rights, and women and gender.  Sarah received her M.A. in History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (opens in new tab) in 2012, and her B.A. in History from the University of Florida in 2009, where she graduated with honors. Sarah is also a former SPOHP intern.

In 2012, McNamara’s Pleasants Award research focused on Latina women’s history in Florida. As a historian, Sarah is dedicated to connecting research to community in a pursuit for social justice. She currently as a member of the research team at UNC’s Southern Oral History Program (opens in new tab).

• Ms. McNamara is currently coordinating a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (opens in new tab)/American Library Association (opens in new tab) for ‘Latino Americans: 500 Years of History’ to conduct history programming across the state of Florida, in partnership with SPOHP’s Latina/o Diaspora in the Americas Project.

 

2010 Pleasants Travel Award: Raymond A. Eberling

Ray Eberling (opens in new tab) is a PhD candidate at the University of Heidelberg, Germany. Eberling received his M.A. in American Studies from the University of Heidelberg (opens in new tab) in 2006. He is a retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel and has taught for the American Studies program at Eckerd College (opens in new tab) in St. Petersburg, Florida. He also holds B.A.s in education from University of Florida and creative writing from Eckerd College, and an M.S. in systems management from the University of Southern California (opens in new tab). Eberling recently appeared in the Florida PBS documentary, Governor Farris Bryant: The Age of the Mind, and has presented topics related to his dissertation twice in recent years at the annual meeting of the Florida Historical Society. He has also volunteered with the SPOHP, conducting oral histories with Vietnam veterans and surviving members of the 1973 “Gainesville 8” conspiracy trial.

Eberling’s research interests examine the intersection of politics, growth, race, the environment, and media in Postwar Florida, using SPOHP’s archives and the university’s special collections to garner research for his dissertation, entitled, “Come on Down! The Selling of the Florida Dream, 1945-1965.”

 

2008 Pleasants Travel Award: Derrick E. White

Dr. Derrick White is an associate professor of history at Florida Atlantic University (opens in new tab). Dr. White earned his Ph.D. in history from The Ohio State University (opens in new tab) and was also a dissertation fellow at the University of California-Santa Barbara Black Studies Department (opens in new tab).

In 2008, Dr. White used the SPOHP collection to examine the integration of sports in the Southeastern Conference, and at the University of Florida in particular. His research interests focus on African American and African Studies, the Civil Rights Movement, Colonial and Post Colonial Africa, Early American History, Slavery in the Americas, 20th Century American History, and the Post-Emancipation Caribbean.

Dr. White was also interviewed by the Florida Historical Quarterly (opens in new tab) about the research he conducted with Julian Pleasants Award. The interview is available for free in a downloadable online podcast, FHQ Volume 88, No. 4 for Spring 2010.

Dr. White is the author of The Challenge  of Blackness:  The Institute of the Black World and Political Acitivism in the 1970s (opens in new tab).  He is co-editor of Winning While Losing: Civil Rights, The Conservative Movement and the Presidency from Nixon to Obama (opens in new tab) and is currently working on Blood, Sweat, and Tears:  The Rise and Fall of Florida A.&M, Black College Football Dynasty, which would be among the first scholarly analyses of Black college football.  He has published articles in the Journal of African American History (opens in new tab), the C.L.R. James Journal (opens in new tab), the Journal of African American Studies (opens in new tab), and the Florida Historical Quarterly (opens in new tab).