Religion

Public Humanities Student Opportunity at UF:

Wish You Were Here – Cultural Research Projects with Florida State Parks

The Florida Division of Recreation & Parks (DRP) is collaborating with the University of Florida and the University of Central Florida on the “Wish You Were Here” project, a self-directed cultural trail for visitors to explore the rich cultural heritage of seven Florida state parks (Wakulla Springs State Park; Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings SHP; Homosassa Springs; Silver Springs; Rainbow Springs; Weekee Wachee; and DeLeon Springs). The objective is to explore Florida’s roadside attractions located along pre-interstate roads before the 1970s, when Disneyworld and the interstate system transformed Florida’s tourism focus. Some of Florida’s most popular former attractions were based around large springs and are now some of today’s most beloved state parks.

This initial collaboration invites faculty and students to participate by developing class projects/assignments, internships, and volunteer experiences engaged with the project. These “public humanities” projects for students may include: conducting oral histories, physical and digital exhibit design, digitizing/archiving/curating slides and film, generating digital cultural resources related to the itinerary (virtual tours), and historical research using state park and other archives, including Paradise Park. Ultimately, the “Wish You Were Here” project will incorporate the research conducted by UF and UCF students to create the following elements for the cultural trail: 

1.       Podcasts and ‘virtual tours’

2.       A map and graphics to accompany the itinerary

3.       Social media templates (such as virtual historic postcards)

4.       Junior Ranger activity/learning components; Road trip games

5.       Geocaching activities

Kickoff Event: November 7-11, 2015

To launch and publicize the itinerary, the DRP will host a November kick-off event.  At each stop, a short event will highlight features of these former historic roadside attractions through photo displays, lectures, collecting oral histories at a “story-telling lounge” and other means. Efforts will be made to locate past performers, employees, and/or people who attended the old attractions in the past to share memories.

Get Involved!

Most of the seven select parks are also willing to sponsor internships over summer and fall semesters, and there are plenty of interesting topics to explore. The following suggests how instructors and departments can be involved in the collaboration; other ideas are welcome.

I. Class Projects— Summer and Fall 2015

To get started and facilitate the development of “Wish You Were Here” products, we propose that students could submit “interactive research papers” as a component of a particular class. Here is a tentative model of this assignment:

1. DRP suggests topics about a park that could be highlighted or researched.
2. Students pick a topic which suits their major/class and interests them.
3. Students write a traditional research paper on the topic.
4. Students create an “interactive” component alongside the paper, such as a:
   1. Podcast
   2. Slideshow
   3. Infographic
   4. Phototags
   5. YouTube Video
   6. Virtual Tour
5. The interactive component undergoes a DRP review process with paper attached as reference.
6. The best projects are selected and posted online as part of the “Wish You Were Here” initiative.
7. Selected students get a certificate and the ability to use their published work as a resume builder.

For faculty and students interested in this model, the DRP can make the PastPerfect parks archive available for research at any state park location or District Administration office with prior arrangement (177 locations statewide). This would allow DRP to reach the goals of creating creative and well-informed marketing items for the parks itinerary and to help the parks to develop a better understanding of their historical significance. This would complement coursework for humanities students by showing them how the content and methodologies they are learning contributes to important Florida planning conversations. These projects could lead to further research and longer-term projects such as described below for interested students.  We will work with faculty and students to coordinate their contributions to this project and celebrate this initiative at UF.

ll. Internships/Volunteering for Credit or Service-Learning

For students or instructors interested in developing research collaborations with Florida State Parks, all seven parks have extant research needs that could be explored through further dialogue. The attached spreadsheet suggests some possibilities.

For more information on this project and to get involved, contact:

UF Coordinator: Whitney Sanford, Associate Professor, Department of Religion – wsanford@ufl.edu

Office of Greenways and Trails Coordinator: Liz Sparks – Liz.Sparks@dep.state.fl.us