The University of Florida Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience Evenings at Whitney Lecture Series continues Thursday, November 14, 2024, at 6 p.m. with the program titled “Florida Loves Manatees: A Cultural History of Manatees in Florida”. Dr. Steven Noll, Instructional Professor, Department of History at the University of Florida, will be the speaker.
This free lecture will be presented in person at the UF Whitney Laboratory Lohman Auditorium, 9505 Ocean Shore Boulevard, in St. Augustine. Those interested also have the option of registering to watch via Zoom live the night of the lecture.
Register to watch online:
https://ufl.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Ow1uusmlQMCbNI5K7ZOpnA
Dr. Noll’s talk will focus on the relationship of Floridians and manatees in historical perspective - how they moved from useless sea cow to beloved marine mammal icon. It will examine their endangered status and how larger issues like politics and development affect them.
Dr. Steven Noll is an Instructional Professor in the History Department at the University of Florida and received his Ph.D. in 1991 in American History from the University of Florida, his M.A. in 1985 from the University of Florida, his M.Ed. from the University of Florida in Special Education in 1976, and his B.A. in 1974 from the College of William and Mary. He joined the University of Florida Department of History in 1992.
He has published four books: Feeble-Minded in our Midst (1995); Mental Retardation in America (2004); Ditch of Dreams: The Cross-Florida Barge Canal and the Struggle for Florida's Future (2009); and most recently Writing for the Public Good: Essays from David R. Colburn and Sen. Bob Graham, which he edited (2022). Ditch of Dreams started through a grant from the State of Florida's Department of Environmental Protection and was researched and written in collaboration with Professor David Tegeder. Noll is currently working on two books, one on the 1977 Disability Rights Protests and the other on the continuing controversy over the proposed removal of the Rodman Dam from the Ocklawaha River.
Dr. Noll teaches courses on the History of Disability in America, Florida History, Florida Environmental History, Diversity in American History, the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, as well as both halves of the American History survey course.