FSU Department of History

06/01/2026

Congratulations to Bennett Calvo who won the 2026 John and Susan Ausley Undergraduate History Award. This award, based on academic merit, recognizes a History major who is undertaking an Honors in the Major project in History. Calvo's HITM project is on the decentralization of Native American power structures in the American Southeast during the Mississippian Shatter Zone (1540-1730).
Well done, Bennett!

05/29/2026

Did you know that Rick Steves was a History major before becoming a travel writer?
📚
Reel idea: Megan

What's in the reel?
The reel talks about the career of Rick Steves who majoring in European History and Business Administration from the University of Washington in 1978. A trip to Kathmandu along the hippie trail after graduation convinced Steves that his career was in the travel sector. Based on his experiences traveling in Europe, Steves self published his first travel skill book Europe through the Back Door in 1980. In his hometown of Edmonds, Washington, he opened a storefront business, a travel center. He held travel classes and slide show presentations, did travel consulting, and organized group tours. In 1991, he started presenting his travels on television in Travels in Europe with Rick Steves. This was followed by Rick Steves’ Europe from 2000 onward. In 2005, Steves began a weekly public radio program, Travel with Rick Steves. In 2010, he launched the mobile app Rick Steves' Audio Europe. He kept on writing travel books.

05/28/2026

International Congress on Medieval Studies

This year, members of the FSU History community traveled to the International Congress on Medieval Studies, one of the world’s largest gatherings of medieval scholars.

We’re especially proud to highlight current graduate students Baylee Staufenbiel, Noah Cole, and Matthew Hunter, who joined fellow FSU History alumni in presenting research, attending panels, and connecting with scholars from around the globe.

The Congress brings together researchers across disciplines to explore the medieval world through history, literature, religion, art, archaeology, and more—and it’s exciting to see FSU History represented among them!
Post credit: Danielle

05/27/2026

From Tallahassee to Lima: Vinnie Whibbs (FSU 2025) on Teaching English in Peru

After graduation, History major Vinnie Whibbs found himself in Lima in fall 2025 teaching business English to employees of an international company. In this interview, he talks about his experiences of living and working in another country, and how the Center for Intensive English Studies at FSU prepared him for his adventure.

Read the full story at fla.st/DLIWS7DC
Post credit: Riley

05/26/2026

Congratulations to Emma O’Neal who won the Dr. Jean Victoria Marani Endowed Scholarship, which recognizes a History major who plans to pursue a career in teaching history at either the high school or college level.

Dr. Jean Victoria Marani graduated from the Florida State College for Women in 1946 and went on to earn her Ph.D. at Ohio State University. For many years, Dr. Marani taught history and social studies at Riverview High School in Sarasota. In 1962, she was selected as Florida’s Teacher of the Year, and as a finalist for National Teacher of the Year. In 1970 she moved to Tallahassee, where she worked as an educational curriculum consultant at the Department of Education.

Well done, Emma!

05/22/2026

Congratulations to Dr. Dragana Živković who recently started a new position in the Office of Academic Advocacy within Undergraduate Studies at the University of South Florida. Dr. Živković serves as an Academic Advocate on the Progression team, which focuses on supporting students beyond their first year in college. Typically, a Progression Advocate is assigned to a cohort during their second spring semester and continues working with those students through graduation— Dr. Živković is in charge of the 2023 cohort and will be with them until they graduate.

In this role, Dr. Živković provides individualized support to students who may be facing academic or personal barriers that impact their progress. She helps them explore available options and connects them with appropriate resources (such as Student Outreach and Support, Financial Aid, etc). Her work involves close collaboration with academic departments, colleges, and other university personnel to ensure students receive comprehensive, coordinated support.

Essentially, her job is to support students who are experiencing challenges by helping them access resources and guidance that keep them moving toward successful degree completion.
Well done, Dragana!

05/21/2026

Interview: Alexandra Calbough & “The Windover Archeological Site: What can it reveal about the Relationship Between Early Archaic people and the Florida Landscape 7,000 to 8,000 years ago?”

For the senior seminar class on historical landscapes, Alexandra, a native of Titusville, Florida, which is near the Windover Archeological Site, decided to investigate how these early Archaic people of America lived, and how they interacted with their environment.
Find out more about her work at fla.st/934EEIU5

05/20/2026

Today!

Next Wednesday, May 20, celebrate Emancipation Day in Tallahassee with several events downtown in the chain of parks area on Park Avenue.

Beginning at 10 am The John G. Riley Center & Museum will host a Civil War commemorative Service at the Old City Cemetery. At 11 church bells in the downtown area will ring in celebration for 2 minutes.

At 11:30 am there will be a dramatic reading of the Emancipation Proclamation at the Knott House Museum with speeches, music, and a free lunch in Lewis Park.

Learn more at www.20thofMay.com

05/19/2026

Congratulations to FSU History alumni Flora Domitrovic (FSU BA 2026) and Chase Panish (FSU MA 2026) who both won the Historic Preservation Scholar Award from the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation.

Domitrovic earned the Historic Preservation Scholar Award for her Honors in the Major project, "Early Computers as a Tool for Ecologically Conscious City Planning." Read more about her work here: fla.st/SYBHFNKL
In Fall 2026, she will join the University of Pennsylvania’s Stuart Weitzman School of Design to purse a master’s in City Planning.

Panish was honored with the Historic Preservation Scholar Award for his work nominating Tallahassee’s Union Bank to the National Register of Historic Places. Prior to graduation, Panish interned at Heritage Village, Florida, where he used software to create 3D models of Heritage Village's houses for greater accessibility. Read more about the internship at Internship at Heritage Village here fla.st/S8ZJIB1O
After graduation, Panish plans to continue his involvement in cultural resource management as an architectural historian, documenting and evaluating historic sites for preservation.

Congratulations to Spring 2026 Department of History graduates Chase Panish and Flora Domitrovic, who recently won the Historic Preservation Scholar Award from the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation, Inc.!

To learn more about Panish and Domitrovic's work and the prestigious honor, which is awarded for the identification, protection and rehabilitation of Florida's historic sites, visit: fla.st/HQC4313H.

Florida State University, Florida State University Division of Research

05/18/2026

Congratulations to History major Further Noumena who won the Dr. Edward G. Gray Award for Undergraduate Exploratory Research in History for his Honors in the Major project: "Campus Transformed: FSU, Tallahassee, and WWII."

Dr. Edward G. Gray Award for Undergraduate Exploratory Research in History
In order to promote in-depth undergraduate research, the family of the late Dr. Edward G. Gray, in cooperation with the Department of History and the College of Arts and Sciences, has established the Dr. Edward G. Gray Award for Undergraduate Exploratory Research.

This award will typically be given annually to an undergraduate History major who is planning to write an Honors in the Major thesis in the coming academic year. The purpose of the award is to help cover the costs of exploratory research in archives, special collections, and libraries, etc., and/or to acquire relevant skills essential to carrying out the proposed Honors in the Major thesis. These skills may include (but are not limited to) those involved in documentary, biographical, or oral history, archival research, and language training. Given that Dr. Gray’s primary area of research and scholarship was American/U.S. History, there will be a preference for applicants who plan to write an Honors thesis in
that field.

Edward G. Gray joined FSU’s faculty in 1998 after earning his Ph.D. from Brown University in 1996. His early research interests centered on how nations and empires shape themselves and function on the ground and, subsequently, what it was like for societies to live with the consequences of those processes. He spent most of his professional teaching and administrative career at Florida State University, including service as department chair from 2013 to 2022. He focused on colonial and revolutionary era-U.S. history, from European contact with early America in the latter part of the 16th century through the early 19th century. Among his many publications were four books: New World Babel (1996), The Making of John Ledyard (2007), Tom Paine’s Iron Bridge (2016), and Mason-Dixon: Crucible of the Nation (2023).