Summer 2020 – Virtual Edition
This initiative persevered in the time of COVID-19 as all internships were transitioned to a virtual format. In summer 2020, we proudly introduced and awarded four opportunities as part of the new Public Humanities Internship Program.
Historical Research Assistant: The Hippodrome Theater
The Hippodrome was founded in 1972 by six artists with the goal of presenting the best in challenging, contemporary theatre. The Hippodrome Theatre is committed to artistic excellence in North Florida. Their mission is to collaborate with artists, create productions, education programs, events, and cinematic programming that reflect and elevate the diverse cultures and perspectives of the region, and to create and maintain ongoing engagement with our community.
The purpose of this internship was to conduct research and oral histories related to the founding of the Hippodrome Theatre. Some of the responsibilities included interviewing founding members of the theatre as well as other prominent people from the Hippodrome’s history, and researching the history of the theatre in digital archives. These oral histories serve as the basis for a new podcast with the Hippodrome, “The Hipp Six.” While live performances are not possible due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this podcast will connect the Hippodrome with new and existing audiences in an accessible way. For more information, click here.
Social Media Outreach Assistant: Howard T. Odum Florida Springs Institute
The Howard T. Odum Florida Springs Institute (FSI) is a science and education based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Their mission is to document the health of Florida’s springs and provide education about the threats that face them in hopes to ensure that future generations of wildlife and humans can enjoy Florida’s springs. FSI is located in a historic building in downtown High Springs, Florida. They concurrently operate the North Florida Springs Environmental Center, which is open to the public.
The goal of this internship was to assist FSI in the creation of online outreach campaigns for FSI’s social media. The internship responsibilities included assisting with content creation of FSI’s website, such as blog writing. For more information, click here.
Exhibition Research Assistant: Historic Thomas Center
The City of Gainesville Parks and Recreation Department and the Cultural Affairs Department’s mission is to be the keeper and host of the places where nature, recreation and culture meet. In support of this mission, the Cultural Affairs Division provides its community with diverse gallery exhibitions and public art installations. Programming is guided by a set of objectives which include using arts and culture to bridge and connect communities and residents.
The Galleries at the Historic Thomas Center prepare and present challenging and informative art exhibitions. The City has recently acquired a collection of the work of African American self-taught artist, Alyne Harris (b. 1942). The teachings of Christianity and her connections to church and community life are the two great and interconnected influences in this body of work. The City of Gainesville needed an intern to research and prepare interpretive content about the historical significance of the Christian tradition and the history of 20th century African American churches in the Gainesville community in support of an upcoming art exhibition. For more information, click here.
Volunteer Program Development: Howard W. Bishop Middle School’s Community Partnership School
The Community Partnership School (CPS) model is a collective impact model that focuses on improving outcomes for students, families, and communities through collaborative partnerships in Gainesville, Florida at Howard Bishop Middle School (HBMS). The CPS improves the lives of students, parents, teachers, faculty, staff and community members by engaging four key partners: the Children’s Home Society of Florida (CHS), the School Board of Alachua County (SBAC), the Alachua County Health Department (ACHD), the University of Florida (UF), and Santa Fe College (SF).
The goal of this internship was to improve the ability of the school to understand what volunteers offer in terms of competence experience and training, and to more effectively link these to specific needs throughout the school and in the classroom to enhance the overall learning environment for the students. For more information, click here.
Meet the 2020 Interns!
The summer 2020 internships were originally designed to be on-site and in-person. With the challenges of the pandemic, changes were made to adapt each internship to remote work. All interns successfully adjusted to the new virtual format to carry out their work responsibilities.
Lauren Burrell Cox (Department of English), Historical Researcher at The Hippodrome.
Lauren Burrell Cox is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of English at the University of Florida specializing in feminist film and media studies. Her dissertation focuses on archival films and how they reactivate and engage with the archive of film history. Lauren is also a filmmaker and has shown films at the Key West Film Festival and in the Gainesville community. She teaches film and literature in the English Department and serves as the President of the UF Graduate Film Studies Group.
“This internship definitely gave me more insight into how a theatre operates as well as how community arts organizations function, which I think will be valuable knowledge going forward. I think that it has also given me a potential career pathway related to audio storytelling, and I’m very excited to explore this career avenue.”
Danielle Jordan (Department of English), Outreach Assistant at Howard T. Odum Florida Springs Institute
Danielle Jordan is a second year Ph.D. student in the UF Department of English. She holds a B.A. in sociology and anthropology. Her current research interests include the environmental humanities, speculative fiction, film, and critical theory. In addition, she is committed to the public humanities, and prior to arriving at UF she spent time working on climate change and clean energy in the non-profit sector.
As Outreach Assistant, she assisted with outreach efforts for FSI’ social media accounts and website. She engaged in online communication; public outreach, including social media; blog post writing; and developing social media posts for outreach campaigns for various springs-related topics.
“I see that there is work to be done, even at science based/research non-profits for humanists that is fulfilling and important. Working on language, writing, messaging, public facing materials for an organization like this is something I would be interested in in the future.”
Christopher Lomelin (Department of Religion), Research Assistant in Religion at Historic Thomas Center
Christopher Lomelin earned a B.A. in Spanish and International Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2013 and M.A. in Latin American Studies from the University of Florida in 2016. His current interests include religion and politics, race and religion, social movements, the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, transnationalism, and environmental and animal ethics. His dissertation research focuses on the sanctuary church movement throughout the United States and the U.S.-Mexico borderlands.
“This project clearly demonstrated that researching and writing are not impractical, but rather valuable skill sets that can contribute to myriad projects. Additionally, the professional development and the CV workshops were incredibly useful for thinking about a non-academic career.”
Lori Lye (Department of Spanish and Portuguese), Program Development at Howard W. Bishop Middle School
Lori Lye is a fourth year Ph.D. candidate in Hispanic Linguistics, investigating mobile apps for language learning. She started at UF in 2009, completing her Bachelor’s in Math, Chinese, and Spanish followed by a Master’s in Education. She is active in the community through the Migrant Education Program, working with English language learners.
As Program Development Intern, she helped create organizational and management tools for their volunteer program. Also, she assessed the needs of current volunteer program and existing protocols and evaluated curriculum for volunteer training and support. Her responsibilities included creating a database of volunteers and a system for matching volunteer competence and experience to school and classroom needs; and designing surveys for administration, faculty, and volunteer feedback.
“During the internship I was able to become involved with community engagement, to discover various opportunities within Gainesville…Through the Informational Interview workshop I was able to interview contacts in industry, working in career pathways outside of the traditionally assumed academia that humanities students are assumed to pursue.”