FSU faculty available for coverage of America 250

By: Stephen Stone | Published: | 9:00 am | SHARE: Share on FacebookShare on LinkedInShare on X

The Florida State University Departments of History, English and Religion, all housed within the College of Arts and Sciences, are home to several faculty who specialize in areas that highlight America’s rich past and present.
The Florida State University Departments of History, English and Religion, all housed within the College of Arts and Sciences, are home to several faculty who specialize in areas that highlight America’s rich past and present. (Adobe Stock)

On July 4, 2026, the United States will celebrate the 250th anniversary of its independence. The semiquincentennial includes a commemoration of America’s storied history from the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, into the present day.

The Florida State University Departments of History, English and Religion, all housed within the College of Arts and Sciences, are home to several faculty who specialize in areas that highlight America’s rich past and present. Recently, many of these faculty members have won external grants and fellowships.

Below are several faculty members who may be contacted for interviews on their core areas of research:

African American literature and culture

Montgomery specializes in African American fiction, contemporary Black women’s novels, and major figures in American literature such as Toni Morrison and Gloria Naylor. Her work focuses on the development and achievements of African American literature within the context of American history and culture.

American culture and the environment

Ballard specializes in 20th and 21st century U.S. literature and culture, environmental humanities, and ecocriticism. Her research explores how fiction (including science fiction and speculative fiction) responds to environmental concerns and social issues.

Sperling’s research focuses on U.S. modernist and contemporary literature and popular culture, environmental literature and ecocriticism, including how science fiction and other literary forms address climate change and other contemporary environmental issues.

American literature and American philosophy, especially pragmatism

Epstein’s research has focused on the influence of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau and the tradition of American pragmatist philosophy associated with William James, John Dewey, Richard Rorty, and Stanley Cavell, in relation to 20th- and 21st-century American literature (especially poetry) and culture more broadly.

American popular culture and music

Faulk specializes in intersections between modern literature, popular music and media.  He has special expertise in the work of one of the masters of American music, Bob Dylan, and has edited a collection of essays about teaching Bob Dylan and his work.

Kirby writes extensively about American music, especially American roots music and the history of rock and roll, including a book on the pioneering musician Little Richard.

Edwards specializes in 20th- and 21st-century U.S. literature and popular culture, with particular emphasis on contemporary popular music (especially country music and rock music) and television as well as on film and new media. She has written books on towering figures in American music, Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton. She has also written on Bob Dylan and serves on the Advisory Board of The University of Tulsa Institute for Bob Dylan Studies. Her teaching interests include: media studies, including television studies, popular music studies, film, new media, and screen studies; U.S. literature and popular culture from the 19th century to the present; and digital humanities.

Childhood and the family

Renfro is an associate professor of history. He is the author of two books: Stranger Danger: Family Values, Childhood, and the American Carceral State (Oxford University Press, 2020) and The Life and Death of Ryan White: AIDS and Inequality in America (University of North Carolina Press, 2024), which received an honorable mention in the general nonfiction category at the Florida Book Awards.

Cold War

Creswell is an expert on the lengthy period from 1947-1991 between the United States and the Soviet Union – an era of indirect conflict between the world’s two largest global powers. He has also served as an adjunct professor of strategy for the U.S. Naval War College and specializes in international politics and military affairs.

Cold War literature and culture

Epstein specializes in the literature and culture of the Cold War, and how Cold War cultural discourses and political and social dynamics affect literature, ideas about friendship, community, and the individual, and related topics.

Cultural history

Mooney is interested in the cultural history of citizenship in the United States – how it is imagined and made into political and legal discourse and how it plays out in people’s daily lives. Her first book, “Race Horse Men,” examines the generations of Black men who worked with thoroughbred horses from the colonial period to the 1920s. Her most recent book, “Isaac Murphy,” tells the story of Reconstruction and Redemption through the life of one of America’s first superstar Black athletes.

Early American and 19th century American literature and culture

Kilgore specializes in early American and 19th-century U.S. literature and culture and figures like Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. His research focuses on literature and liberation, from the American Revolution to the Civil War, and he is writing a book about the Civil War in Florida. He has also published on the music of Bob Dylan.

Epstein has written extensively on the work of Ralph Waldo Emerson and the American philosopher William James and their influence on modern literature, and his work and teaching have focused on Whitman, Dickinson and other 19th-century American authors.

Early Republic

Haigler specializes in gender, political culture and partisan development in the early American republic. Her current book project, titled “Settled Out of Doors: Sociability, Caucus Building and Partisan Development in the Early Republic,” is a study of political culture and social life in early Philadelphia and Washington City with a focus on the influence of feminized sociability on the creation of key political strategies and party building in Congress.

Florida and Southern literature, culture, and history

Roberts specializes in Southern culture, and her work focuses on the history and culture of Florida, as well as the South in general. She has written extensively about contemporary Florida politics and culture, the cultural phenomenon of college football, and the works of major American writers like William Faulkner.

Edwards specializes on the culture and history of American country music (especially figures like Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, and Bob Dylan) in the context of the American South and American history more broadly.

Historical preservation

As a public historian and preservation professional, Conti consults on projects across the U.S. Her research spans the Americas and the former Soviet Union, focusing on how to preserve and interpret places of “difficult heritage” — sites of trauma, contested history or atrocities.

Latin American and Caribbean history

Hicks has a specialization in Latin American and Caribbean history, including 20th–century Cuba. She is also an expert in labor movements, women and gender.

North American borderlands and the Native South

Lauersdorf is a specialist in North American borderlands and the Native South in the 16th and 17th centuries. Her current book project is titled “Apalachee Coast: Indigenous Power in the Colonial Gulf South.” Her research has been supported by the Huntington Library, the Center for the Study of the American South, and the University of Florida Libraries.

Pop culture

Robbins has strong knowledge on how pop culture intersects with history. In the classroom, her main goal is to make history applicable to all students, regardless of their major.

Public and urban history

Koslow is a scholar of the history of public health, public history, and gender. She has worked on several consequential scholarly products of historical research that foster community engagement. These include a historical narrative for a Historic American Landscapes Survey of Smokey Hollow (National Park Service Program), a historical narrative for a National Register of Historic Places Nomination (National Park Service Program), and other Civil Rights commemorations in Tallahassee, including the Tallahassee-Leon County Civil Rights Heritage Walk.

Religion

An assistant professor of religion at FSU, Hazard focuses on religions in early national and antebellum U.S. history, and media, material texts and new materialisms. She is an expert on religion during the founding of the U.S. and the post-revolutionary period.

Revolutionary and Napoleonic France

Blaufarb specializes in the history of Revolutionary and Napoleonic France, including the connections between rebellions in the Atlantic world. He has published articles in the American Historical Review, Annales, H.S.S., Journal of Modern History, Past & Present, Comparative Studies in Society and History, and French Historical Studies.

Science and technology innovation

Doel has expertise on the different periods of scientific and technological advancement. He teaches the history of science and technology, as well as environmental policy. Doel has published more than three dozen book chapters and articles, including in Osiris, Centaurus, Journal for the History of Astronomy, Intelligence and National Security, and the Journal of Historical Geography.

Seminole history

Frank is the director of FSU’s Native American and Indigenous Studies Center and a professor of history. He is an ethnohistorian who specializes in the history of the Florida Seminoles and the Native South. His research has been supported by grants and fellowships from institutions that include the American Philosophical Society, American Historical Association, Newberry Library, and Huntington Library.

World War II

A historian of World War II – which reshaped global politics from 1939-1945 between the Allied and Axis powers – Piehler holds research interests in war and society and oral history during this period. He is the author of three books on World War II and has edited several more publications. He served as a visiting professor at the U.S. Air Force Academy.