The highlight of the department’s academic calendar each year is our Undergraduate Honors Symposium. The 2024 edition did not disappoint. On April 14, Smathers Library hosted eighteen presenters plus dozens of faculty mentors, family members, and friends. Under the supervision of Honors Program Director and Associate Professor Sheryl Kroen, honors students wrote 40-60 page papers based on research from archives near and far. For some honors students, research meant weeks of work in UF’s Special Collections. For others, the pursuit of history took them to Brussels, Bucharest, Madrid, Paris, or Washington, D.C.
Honors students took on topics that ranged dramatically in geography and time period. Zachary Potter-Zimmerman (supervisor Professor Florin Curta) wrote a thesis about medieval German religious pilgrims while Jennifer Izquierdo (supervisor Emeritus Professor Jeffrey D. Needell) studied indigenous communities in twentieth century Brazil. Despite the diversity of their topics, honors students fed off one another’s enthusiasm. Avery Goodman, who wrote about the cultural history of interracial sexual relationships in the United States, gave advice to future students, “Write a thesis about something you are genuinely passionate about and interested in. The process doesn’t feel like work if you love your topic.”
Graduates of the program have big plans. There are recipients of prestigious awards like the Fulbright and the Beinecke Scholarship. Several have entered graduate programs in history and related fields. Others are starting law school at some of the best universities in the county, like Vanderbilt, Georgetown and, of course, UF’s own Levin School of Law.
This year Professor Kroen is back with a new group of twenty-six students. Look out for the results of their work in our honors symposium program in the spring. In the meantime, take a look at our profiles of the weekly honors students on the department’s Instagram and Facebook!
