LAKELAND, Fla. (Sept. 4, 2007) — Florida Southern College’s Center for Florida History presents its 2007-2008 Florida Lecture Series with six guest speakers, beginning Sept. 27 and concluding March 13. The lectures will take place at 7 p.m. in the William M. Hollis Seminar Room on the FSC campus. The schedule of events is listed below. All lectures are free and open to the public. For more information, please call 863-680-3001.

“Once again, we are extremely pleased to bring the Florida Lecture Series to our students, faculty, and friends in Lakeland and the greater Tampa Bay area,” noted James M. Denham, director of the Center for Florida History and FSC history professor. “This year marks the twelfth year that our series has brought the ‘Florida Experience’ to life for our community and region. This season promises to be one of our finest!”

Schedule of Lectures
Sept. 27 - “Leroy Collins: Floridian of His Century.” Long considered the dean of Florida political journalists, Martin Dyckman reported on Florida government and politics for the St. Petersburg Times for more than forty years. Joining the Times staff soon after graduating from Florida State University, he served as the newspaper’s Tallahassee news bureau chief from 1969-76. Admired for his investigative journalism and hard-hitting commentaries, Dyckman’s reporting uncovered numerous scandals and ethical lapses in state government. In the early 1970s Dyckman’s investigative journalism exposed a corruption and ethics scandal on the Florida Supreme Court. After a brief stint in the Times’s Washington bureau, he returned to Florida in 1979 to join the paper’s editorial board. Dyckman has won numerous awards for his work, including the distinguished service award of the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors, the Silver Gavel of the American Bar Association, the Associated Press Managing Editors Association public service award, and the Medal of Honor Award of the Florida Bar Foundation. Since retirement Dyckman has put his journalism skills to work in writing history and biography. His first effort is the award-winning “Floridian of His Century: Courage of Governor LeRoy Collins.” Currently he is at work on a biography of former Florida governor Reubin Askew. His forthcoming work, “A Most Disorderly Court: Scandal and Reform in the Florida Judiciary,” will be released in 2008.

Oct. 11 – “The Swamp: The Everglades.” A native of Greenvale, N.Y. and graduate of Harvard College in 1992, Michael Grunwald is an award-winning reporter and writer. Grunwald worked for the Boston Globe and the Washington Post, and is now a senior correspondent for Time magazine. He has won the George Polk Award for national reporting, the Worth Bingham Prize for investigative reporting, and the Society of Environmental Journalists award for in-depth reporting. In 2006, Simon & Schuster published his first book, “The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida and the Politics of Paradise,” which won the Florida Book Award’s Gold Medal for Non-Fiction.

Nov. 15 – “Death in the Everglades—the Slaying of Guy Bradley.”  A graduate of the University of North Carolina and native of the Tar Heel state, Stuart McIver is the author of 14 books and nearly 500 magazine articles. Before moving to Florida in 1962, McIver worked at the Greensboro Daily News, the Charlotte News, and the Baltimore Sun. Mclver’s latest book is “Death in the Everglades,” the story of the murder of Audubon warden Guy Bradley in1905. His fascination with the Everglades dates back to the 1960s when he was active in writing and producing documentary films, one of which, “Alligator,” won a Silver Medal at the Venice (Italy) Film Festival. His other books include “Hemingway’s Key West” and the “Florida Chronicles Series: Dreamers, Schemers, and Scalawags;” “Murder in the Tropics;” and “Touched by the Sun.” McIver edited the South Florida Historical Magazine for 22 years and is a former president of the Florida Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America and the Writers Network of South Florida.

Jan. 31 – “Henry Flagler: Last Train to Paradise.” Les Standiford is the best-selling author of 14 books, including the novels “Bone Key” and “Havana Run.” He has also authored critically acclaimed works of non-fiction, “Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad that Crossed an Ocean” and “Meet You in Hell: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick and the Bitter Partnership that Transformed America.” He has received the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award, and the Frank O’Conner Award for Short Fiction, and Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. “Last Train to Paradise” was read coast to coast on NPR by Dick Estell, the Radio Reader, and was one of the History Channel’s “top ten” picks. “Meet you in Hell” was Crown publisher’s 2005 nominee for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. A native Ohioan, he is a graduate of Muskingum College and earned M. A. and Ph. D degrees from the University of Utah. He is Professor of English and Director of the Creative Writing Program at Florida International University in Miami.

Feb. 28 – “Booker T. Washington Comes to Florida.” A highly sought-after public speaker, Atlanta native David Jackson holds degrees from Florida A & M (B.S. and M.S.) and from the University of Memphis (Ph.D.). Before joining the FAMU faculty Jackson worked in private industry and as a high school teacher, earning accolades as Memphis City School system’s “Most Influential Teacher” for two years. Jackson won the Rattler Pride award for Community Leadership, the FAMU Teacher of the Year Award, and was named Advanced Teacher of the Year in 2006. He has published over a dozen scholarly articles and presented papers at numerous professional conferences. He is the author or co-author of “A Chief Lieutenant of the Tuskegee Machine: Charles Banks of Mississippi” (Gainesville, 2002), “Retrieving the American Past” (2003), and “Go Sound the Trumpet! Selections in Florida’s African American History” (Tampa, 2005). He is currently at work on a book-length study of Booker T. Washington’s southern travels from 1908 to 1912. Dr. Jackson has served as an historical consultant to many organizations and agencies, including the Florida National Register Review Board and the Florida Historical Commission. He is currently Chairman of the Board of Directors for the John G. Riley House Museum and Cultural Center in Tallahassee.

March 13 – “The Petticoat Affair: Manners and Sex in Andrew Jackson’s White House.” A graduate of Canisius College and the University of Notre Dame, John F. Marszalek taught at Gannon University, before coming to Mississippi State University in 1973. A specialist in the U. S. Civil War, the Jacksonian Period, and race relations, he is the author or editor of thirteen books and over 250 articles and book reviews. His most well-known books are “Sherman, A Soldier’s Passion for Order” (1993), “The Petticoat Affair: Manners, Mutiny, and Sex in Andrew Jackson’s White House” (1998), and Commander of All Lincoln’s Armies, A Life of General Henry W. Halleck” (2004), all History Book Club selections. His publications have been the subject of major news stories in national newspapers including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and USA Today. He is a popular lecturer and has appeared on ABC, CBS, CNN, and NBC Television, the Arts and Entertainment Television Network, C-SPAN, C-SPAN 2, Showtime Television, the History Channel, the Voice of America and Mississippi Public Radio. He is the recipient of numerous teaching and literary awards, including the Richard Wright Literary Award and the B.L.C. Wailes Award for national distinction in history.

About the Florida Lecture Series
The Florida Lecture Series is produced by the Center for Florida History under the direction of Dr. James M. Denham. The program brings speakers to the Lakeland campus who approach the issue of “Florida Life and Culture” from a wide range of disciplines, including history, public affairs, law, sociology, criminology, anthropology, literature, music and art. Its overall objective is to create an opportunity for members of the community, faculty, and student body to listen to, interact with and learn from leading scholars and specialists of the state’s history and culture.

About Florida Southern College
Founded in 1885, Florida Southern College is a private, comprehensive United Methodist-affiliated college with a liberal arts core. The College maintains its commitment to academic excellence through 46 undergraduate majors and distinctive graduate programs in business administration, education, and nursing. Florida Southern has a 14:1 student/faculty ratio; is a national leader in engaged learning; boasts 26 NCAA Division II national championships; and is ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the Top 5 Southern Comprehensive Colleges-Bachelors and is included in The Princeton Review’s “366 Best Colleges” guide. The College is committed to the development of the whole student through vibrant student life programs that prepare graduates to make a positive, consequential impact on society. Located on scenic Lake Hollingsworth, Florida Southern is home to the world’s largest single-site collection of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture.