Rollins History Students Present at Regional Conference
Ten Rollins history majors and minors presented their research at the Florida Conference of Historians in Gainesville, Florida, with topics ranging from the Vietnam War and eugenics to St. Wivina and gentrification in Orlando.
February 12, 2026
The Rollins contingent was the largest group of students from a single institution at the conference. History professors Hannah Ewing, Claire Strom, and Jorge Andrés Varela Yepes were also in attendance presenting or chairing a number of sessions.
The Florida Conference of Historians, founded in 1962 as the Florida College Teachers of History, is a statewide nonprofit scholarly organization dedicated to fostering the sharing of historical research and collegiality among historians. The Florida Conference of Historians hosts an annual conference open to all fields of history and publishes the FCH Annals to showcase selected scholarship.
Panel 1D: Questioning Metanarratives on Colonial Spanish America
- Chair and Discussant: Jorge Andrés Varela Yepes
Panel 2B: Reflections on the Vietnam War
- Chemical Warfare in Vietnam | Caitlin Lipscomb ’26
- Student Political Activism and the Vietnam War Draft | Brooke Quast ’26
- Nixon's Portrayal in the Media in the Vietnam War | Charles Curci ’27
- Chair: Claire Strom
Panel 2D: Religion, Language, and Power in the Medieval World
- The Vita of St. Wivina: A Source for Low Country Monastic Sanctity ca. 1200 | Hannah Ewing and K.A. Hamner ’26
Panel 4B: Race in America
Special Interest Section: Undergraduate Research
- Gentrification in the United States | Rae Pizzi ’27
- The Hidden Racial Eugenics | Faith Chaney ’27
- Black Religious Leaders and the Foundations of the African Methodist Episcopal Church | Brynna McDonald ’26
Panel 5B: Aspects of World War Two in Europe
- Soviet Collaboration with the Axis Powers | Christopher Stoops ’27
- Behind Enemy Lines: The Civilian Evacuation of Allied Pilots in Occupied France | Molly Higgins ’28
- LGBTQ+ Life In Soviet Russia: Fighting a War on Two Fronts | Dakota Darnell ’28
Panel 5C: Things That Go Bump in the Night: Fear in American Culture and Politics
- Chair and Discussant: Claire Strom
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