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Florida Lecture Series features
author and historian Jane Landers

LAKELAND, Fla. (Jan. 14, 2002) - Florida Southern College welcomes author and historian Jane Landers to the Florida Lecture Series on Jan. 31. Landers will discuss her book, "Black Society in Spanish Florida" beginning at 7 p.m. in the Hollis Room on campus.

"We are extremely pleased to have Vanderbilt Professor Jane Landers as part of Black History Month here at Florida Southern College," noted James M. Denham, director of FSC's Center for Florida History. "Her work is nationally recognized and informs Americans at every level. This past November Jane's wonderful book earned her the Southern Historical Association's coveted Francis Butler Simkins award. Her lecture will help kick off a two-day symposium on African American history in Florida to be held at the historic L. B. Brown House in Bartow Feb. 1-2."

Landers is Associate Professor of History and Director of the Center for Latin American and Iberian Studies at Vanderbilt University. She holds bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Miami and a doctorate in Latin American Colonial History from the University of Florida. Landers is the author, editor, and contributor of many books including her own, "Black Society in Spanish Florida," the subject of her talk. She has edited "Colonial Plantations and Economy of Florida" (Gainesville, 2000) and "Against the Odds: Free Blacks in the Slave Societies of the Americas" (London, 1996). In addition, she co-edited "The African American Heritage of Florida" (Gainesville, 1995). She has published essays on the African history of the

Hispanic Southeast and of the circum-Caribbean in the "American Historical Review," "Slavery and Abolition," "The Americas," and the "Colonial Latin American Historical Review." Her work appears in anthologies and edited volumes.

Landers also has a strong commitment to enriching the history curriculums in public schools. She directed the National History Teaching Alliance and has written the fourth grade Florida history text currently in use in many Florida public schools.

About Florida Southern College
Florida Southern is a four-year, private, co-educational liberal arts college affiliated with the United Methodist Church. The college offers more than 40 undergraduate majors and a master of business administration degree accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Located in Lakeland, Fla., the college is home to the largest, single-site collection of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture in the world.

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