Michael Gannon
Professor Emeritus of History, University of Florida

"History of Florida in Forty Minutes"

Dr. Michael Gannon is Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Florida. Considered the foremost authority on the Catholic Church in Florida, Dr. Gannon's first two books, Rebel Bishop (1964) and The Cross in the Sand (1965), address that subject. He has also written Florida: A Short History (1993) and is editor and contributor to The New History of Florida (1996).

In the area of naval history, Gannon is the author of bestseller Operation Drumbeat (1990), a history of Germany's first U-boat operations along the American Coast in World War II, and Black May (1998), about the Allies' defeat of the German U-boat fleet in May 1943. His Pearl Harbor Betrayed, released in 2001, has been called the most "authoritatively researched and documented book yet written" on the Japanese attack of December 7, 1941.

A frequent commentator on the Discovery Channel, National Geographic Explorer, and public television, Dr. Gannon is widely recognized as one of America's foremost historians.

Jeanne & David Heidler
Professor of History, U. S. Air Force Academy
   
   
"Old Hickory's War: Andrew Jackson and
the First Seminole War"
   
Old Hickory's War: Andrew Jackson and the Quest for Empire (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2002) Book talk and signing.

David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler received their Ph.D.s at Auburn University where they met and married as graduate students. After a decade of teaching in the Maryland university system, they relocated to Colorado where Jeanne is Professor of History at the United States Air Force Academy. For several years, David was scholar-in-residence at the University of Southern Colorado, and currently conducts distance-learning classes for the school's history department. The Heidlers have collaborated on numerous projects, including editing The War of 1812, An Encyclopedia (1997), Encyclopedia of the Mexican-American War (1999), and Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Social, Political, and Military History, which recently received the Society for Military History's Distinguished Book award for 2003. Along with Old Hickory's War, the Heidler's have also co-authored The War of 1812 (2002) and Manifest Destiny (2003). They are currently completing a study of Andrew Jackson's role in shaping American identity as well as a social history of the early republic.

J. Hyatt Brown
Chairman and CEO Brown & Brown, Inc., (NYSE) and Former Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, 1978-1980

"The Politics of Democracy and
Where It's Taking Florida"

Currently one of Florida's outstanding businessmen, J. Hyatt Brown was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 1972, serving as speaker from 1978-80. Brown served in the Florida legislature during a time of turbulence and change, the last days of the "Pork Choppers," rural lawmakers who dominated the legislative agenda at that time. As an urban businessman elected to the legislature in a time of mostly rural representation, he was instrumental in reforming the political process in Florida to reflect a more urban state.

After his career in politics, Brown returned to his native Daytona Beach and built his family's insurance business into one of the nation's largest publicly owned insurance brokers, with offices in twenty-nine states. Brown's commitment to education and public service is demonstrated by his service on many educational and non-profit boards including the Florida Board of Regents (1982-89), the Stetson University Board of Trustees, the Florida Council of 100, and the Florida Chamber Foundation.

During his productive career in politics and business, Brown has received many awards and commendations. In 1979 Time Magazine named Brown one of the nation's 50 young leaders, and in 1977 and 1978 he was voted the Most Effective Member of the House. Investor's Business Daily named him one of their "Top 10 Leaders & Successful CEOs for 2001" and A.M. Best listed him in its "People to Watch in 2002," listing of persons likely to change the insurance industry in the year ahead.

*Robert W; and Susan E; McKnight Political Affairs Lecture

Vernon Burton
Professor of History, University of Illinois

"A Southerner's Civil War" Gentleman and Officer: James B. Griffin's Civil War (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997)

Book talk and signing.

Dr. Vernon Burton is one of America's premier historians and sociologists of the American South. Born in Royston, Georgia but reared in Ninety Six, South Carolina, Burton holds degrees from Furman (B.A.) and Princeton (Ph.D.). At the University of Illinois since 1974, Burton is currently Professor of History and Sociology and a Senior Research Scientist at the university's National Center for Supercomputing Applications where he heads the initiative for Humanities and Social Science projects. He is the author or editor of more than a hundred articles and seven books, including In My Father's House Are Many Mansions: Family Community in Edgefield, South Carolina (reprinted in 1998), which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and A Gentleman and Officer.

Dr. Burton's research and teaching interests include race relations, family, community, politics, religion, and the intersection of humanities and social science. He has received fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Science Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the National Humanities Center, and the Carnegie Foundation.

Vivien Miller
Principal Lecturer in American Studies, Middlesex University, London, England

"From Martin Tabert to Cool Hand Luke: Race, Masculinity, and Prisoner Life in Florida in the First Half of the 20th Century"

Dr. Vivien Miller is Principal Lecturer in American Studies at Middlesex University in London. She completed her B.A. at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, her M.A. at Florida State University, and after a year at the University of Kansas, she went on to complete her Ph.D. in history at the Open University in Milton Keynes, England. Her book Crime, Sexual Violence, and Clemency: Florida's Pardon Board and Penal System in the Progressive Era was published by the University Press of Florida in 2000. Her current research focuses on race, gender, and class issues in southern punishment and penal practices in the first half of the 20th century, as well as gender and the politics of capital punishment. A second book, The Prison Farm and the Chain Gang: Race, Gender and Punishment in Twentieth-Century Florida, is also to be published by the University Press of Florida in 2005. Dr. Miller resides in London with her husband and daughter and makes frequent research trips to Florida.

*The Robert and Rose Stahl Criminology Lecture

Patrick D. Smith
Writer, Merritt Island, Florida

"Florida: A Land Remembered"

A native of Mississippi, Patrick Smith is considered one of Florida's greatest writers of fiction. An author of international acclaim, Smith has written seven novels including, The River is Home, The Beginning, Forever Island, Angel City, Allapattah, and perhaps his most well-known book, A Land Remembered. Smith's novels have been translated into many languages and have been produced into movies and screen plays. During his long literary career Smith has earned many awards and commendations, including nominations for Pulitzer and Nobel prizes. He has won the Gold Medal of the International Mark Twain Society, the Canadian Fiction Award, and the Southern Academy of Letters, Arts, and Sciences Literary Award. In 2002 the Florida Historical Society named Smith the "Greatest Living Floridian." Smith lives in Merritt Island, Florida. He enjoys boating, gardening, and exploring wildlife.