‘Wish You Were Here’: Exploring the Cultural Heritage of Florida State Parks
REL 3938 (Honors)
Credits: 3
Prereqs: None
Gened: None
Instructor: Whitney Sanford wsanford@ufl.edu
T 4/TBA (See below for notes on class structure.)*
Course description:
Come explore and document the rich cultural heritage of central Florida’s springs. The springs of central Florida have enticed visitors for over five hundred years, from Ponce de Leon and William Bartram to contemporary outdoor enthusiasts. In a time before Disney, visitors to the springs enjoyed mermaid shows, glass bottom boats, and water skiing elephants, attractions we now think of as ‘kitsch’. In collaboration with Florida Department of Parks and Recreation’s “Wish You Were Here” Cultural Trails project, this class will experience, explore, and document 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).
Students will create an “interactive research project”, an interactive or digital format, e.g., podcast or Virtual Tour, accompanied by a short explanatory paper. These “public humanities” projects may include: conducting oral histories, generating digital cultural resources related to the itinerary (virtual tours), and historical research using state park and other archives, including Paradise Park. Park and DRP staff will assist students with project design and access to park resources. You will learn about the cultural, historical, and religious legacies of our parks and about different research methods in the public humanities. Grades will be based on class participation; blog entries; and the interactive research project.
*Travel and Timeline: This class is an experience-based class and involves travel to the parks. We will have one hour per week of classroom discussion, and remaining hours include experiences at the parks. We will visit some parks as a group, but most travel will be self-scheduled to accommodate student schedules. Most travel can be arranged at the student’s own convenience, but it will involve some weekend travel.
This class concludes on Tuesday, November 17, 2015. Students are encouraged to attend DRP’s Kick-off event November 11-15, 2015, an auto tour of the seven parks. At each park, a short event will highlight features of these through photo displays, lectures, collecting oral histories at a “story-telling lounge” and other means, and many of the original park performers will attend.
Whitney Sanford is an associate professor of Religion and specializes in Religions of Asia and Religions of Nature. She recently completed a manuscript entitled “Be the Change: Food, Community, and Sustainability in America” and is beginning a new project on water and homegrown environmentalism in Florida. She loves Florida’s outdoors and is an avid kayaker, sailor, surfer, and cyclist. She volunteers for the non-profit organization Paddle Florida and invites students to join their December 2015 trip focusing on William Bartram.
Link to UF Honors (http://www.honors.ufl.edu/)