Florida Scholar’s Talk Kicks Off NEH-funded Project
Dr. Jerald T. Milanich gave a two-day talk that kicked off a series of scholarly seminars as part of “A Sense of Home: From Cultural Conflict to Coexistence in Florida’s Heartland,” a research project at SFSC funded through the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).
Dr. Milanich, an anthropologist and archaeologist specializing in Native American culture in Florida, visited the SFSC Highlands Campus at the invitation of Dr. Charlotte Pressler. He spoke on the interaction among the Spaniards and the indigenous peoples who inhabited Florida in the 1500s.
Dr. Pressler is heading up the three-year “Sense of Home” project to infuse Florida’s history not only into standard history classes, but literature, psychology, sociology, and philosophy courses. The project came about as result of a $99,619 grant awarded by National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).
Dr. Milanich holds the post of Curator Emeritus of Archaeology at the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida in Gainesville, where he also served as a professor of anthropology.
Dr. Milanich is the first of several experts in the history of the Heartland who will visit SFSC to engage with the college faculty and high school teachers in scholarly discussions on Florida’s history.
Dr. Pressler noted the seminars are not an end in themselves. She explained the objective was to develop “curricular modules”—or mini courses—from the seminars for instructors to fit into existing courses.
