New Chairs
This article was originally published in the August 1999 issue of CLASnotes.
Fitz Brundage, Chair, History Department
The Department of History continues to be engaged in an ongoing process of transformation. During the past decade we have had an infusion of new talent to such an extent that roughly a third of the department of 36 were hired after 1990. Despite this turnover in faculty, the department has maintained its core strengths in American, Latin American, African, and European history. These recent hires partially compensate for the loss of distinguished colleagues and ensure our program's vitality for the foreseeable future.
The department's dedication to undergraduate teaching also endures. We face, along with all departments in the humanities, the challenge of insisting upon the relevance of thinking historically and of promoting the value of the humanities to students who generally are oriented toward non-humanities majors. One reassuring sign that we are succeeding in this mission is the recent increase in the number of majors in history. Despite enrollment pressures, we remain committed to offering rigorous undergraduates courses, as evidenced by our intensive, limited enrollment junior colloquia. The department also has introduced a 3/2 degree program so that some of our best undergraduates can enjoy the challenges and benefits of intensive study in graduate seminars.
A recent and exciting development is the University's expanding resources for graduate education. This year we welcome 25 incoming graduate students, one of our largest classes in years. These students include a sizeable number of 3/2 and MA students, as well as PhD students from across the country. Our graduate program's strengths, which reflect the geographical and methodological diversity of our faculty's interests, attract an equally diverse graduate student population. Our challenge now is to make sure that the graduate students we train are competitive in an unusually complex and cutthroat job market. To date, the department's placement record is impressive, but we fully understand that in an era of adjuncts, part-time appointments, and diminishing post-docs, we cannot be complacent.
A final challenge facing our department is the same one confronting the broader academic community, namely how can a vital and creative community of scholars be sustained at a time when the forces of academic entropy are great? Not only must we merge the talents of established senior faculty with junior faculty, but we must also forge a broader community across disciplinary boundaries. This goal is obviously an ambitious—perhaps even utopian—aspiration, but it nevertheless remains a vital one.
Nigel Smith, Chair, Geography Department
Here in the United States, the discipline of geography suffers from a bit of an image problem. In the public's mind, geography is often confused with geology (no offense intended to distinguished colleagues in the Department of Geology). And for many, geography consists of the rather boring task of locating capitals of the world on a map. In Europe and most developing countries, however, geography is seen as a vital part of the core curriculum beginning in elementary schools. Fortunately, geography in America is undergoing a revival of sorts as our politicians lament a lack of "geographic knowledge" among students and as governments, development agencies, and the business community increasingly appreciate the perspectives and skills offered by geographers.
Although Geography at UF is a relatively small program with 15 faculty, we are well-positioned to take advantage of increased opportunities for geographers both inside and outside of academia. We contribute to the general education of UF undergraduates while also training individuals for employment with bachelors, masters, and doctoral degrees. Our main thematic strengths include natural resource management for sustainable development; climate change, fluvial processes, and impacts of natural hazards; and locational analysis and diffusion of technical innovations. On the regional level, we are one of the top five departments in the nation in Latin American geography, and we also have significant strengths in African geography. Consequently, we have strong ties to two thriving centers on campus: the Center for Latin American Studies and Center for African Studies.
On the "technique" side, we have made a major commitment to strengthen our expertise in GIS (Geographic Information Systems), remote sensing and computer cartography, essential tools that underpin our teaching and research efforts at the thematic and regional levels. Our GIS and remote sensing lab is attracting students from all over campus; GIS serves as a common "language" for so many disciplines and thus reinforces our central position in the academic community, bridging the physical/natural and social sciences.
While geography at UF is relatively high tech (it is near the top of the college, for example, in the use of computers for teaching and research), we value sound scholarship. Several of our faculty are Fulbright, Guggenheim, Linnean Society of London, and Humboldt Fellows, and many of us have recently published books with major scientific publishing houses. We have thus assembled a team that will help society address the many challenges facing humanity in the next century.
Credits
Writers
Fitz Brundage and Nigel Smith
