The highlight of the department’s academic calendar each year is our Undergraduate Honors Symposium. The 2025 edition did not disappoint. On April 6, Smathers Library hosted 21 presenters plus dozens of faculty mentors, family members and friends. Under the supervision of honors program director 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 the far reaches of the globe.
Honors students took on topics that ranged dramatically in geography and time period. James Ryan Sheehan (supervisor Florin Curta) wrote a thesis about oral tradition and Æthelberht’s laws while Ashley Theilacker (supervisor Steve Noll) studied the U.S. eugenics movement from the 1920s to the 1930s. Emily Mims (supervisor Robert Billups), experimented with oral history while others, like Michael Hershfield (supervisor Jack Davis), examined topics closer to home with the historical legacy of UF athletics.
Graduates of the program have big plans. There are recipients of prestigious awards, several have entered graduate programs in history and related fields, and others are starting law school at some of the best universities in the county.
Throughout Summer 2025, the department’s Instagram and Facebook pages spotlighted many of the participants with weekly features for those interested in a more in-depth look at the historians and their fascinating work!