UROP Research Mentor Project Submission Portal: Submission #1266

Submission information
Submission Number: 1266
Submission ID: 20926
Submission UUID: d039602a-405b-4fed-8dad-511278eab17c

Created: Mon, 08/18/2025 - 04:43 PM
Completed: Mon, 08/18/2025 - 05:14 PM
Changed: Tue, 09/02/2025 - 04:53 PM

Remote IP address: 68.35.244.211
Submitted by: Anonymous
Language: English

Is draft: No

Research Mentor Information

Benjamin Gunter
he, him, his
Dr.
bengunter@fsu.edu
Faculty
Communication and Information
Theater with a Mission
Codington and Gunter as Secretary of State John Quincy Adams & Louisa Catherine Adams.png

Additional Research Mentor(s)

Idy Codington
she, her, hers
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idycodington@gmail.com
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Overall Project Details

Family Feuds in Florida, 1776
America250, Florida history, Romeo & Juliet, festival, games, reenactment
Yes
6
Open to all majors.
On FSU Main Campus
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In-person
7.5
Flexible schedule (Combination of business and outside of business. TBD between student and research mentor.)
Just in time for America250, revisit the Revolution from the perspective of Florida families who were feuding over Loyalist and Patriot perceptions of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Collaborate with a cross-disciplinary research team to build a research basis for reenacting Florida’s pivotal but little-known role in the American Revolution, complete with authentic foods, games, animals, characters, and speeches.

Learn how to make history come to life, by digging into letters, diaries, pictures, play scripts, newspaper stories, recipes, fashion plates, architectural plats, archaeological finds, music, dances, toasts, government documents, speeches, and tall tales from 250 years ago.
We’ll start with orientation. You’ll get a crash course in British Florida’s loyalist past through assigned readings – selected passages from “Florida in the American Revolution” and “Florida Historical Quarterly.” You’ll get to see what you’re reading about, first person, in targeted group excursions to historical sites and archives (like Mission San Luis, the Museum of Florida History, and FSU Special Collections).

We’ll proceed to specialization. Each member of the team will select one Loyalist vs. Patriot feud that raged in Florida during 1776 and become our resident expert on that particular “family.” You’ll build an annotated bibliography of sources that make the members of your feuding “family” come to life. With the help of two mentors and five fellow UROP members, you’ll dig up primary documents from Florida’s revolutionary history (letters, diary entries, speeches, newspaper stories) and produce research-based suggestions for how to put family feuds from 1776 Florida onstage.
You need 5 essential skills for success with “Family Feuds in Florida, 1776”:

1) Curiosity, since the past does not reveal itself unless you look for it. (Required.)

2) Collaboration, since understanding context from many points of view makes history come to life, for you and for your teammates. (Required.)

3) Commitment to learning, since every research project demands diligence, hits snags, and profits by calling others in to help. (Required.)

4) Time management, since “Family Feuds in Florida, 1776” calls for averaging 7.5 hours of work per week over 2 semesters of research, and a project this large calls for breaking big goals into manageable bites. (Required.)

5) Technological know-how, since your research will involve strategic use of digital libraries, our team meetings may include Zoom, and your research progress will be posted on a Google Drive. (Required.)

We find that research (like rehearsing a play) achieves breakthroughs when people work together to examine turning points from different viewpoints, reading between the lines. That’s why our approach to mentoring is collaborative, guided, and flexible.

We believe in giving you lots of team support as you put into practice a research process that we have repeatedly proven effective, progressing from guided orientation to mentored specialization.

And we believe in giving you all the freedom you need to blaze a highly individual research trail, across barriers of time and space into face-to-face encounters with Florida’s multicultural past.
TheaterwithaMission.com -- https://www.facebook.com/share/v/16hFVi3q44/
Want to get hands-on with evidence – evidence you learn to locate for yourself?

Want to have a say in research design?

Want to map out your own area of expertise within a field that shapes our nation’s self-perception and public policy?

Want to become the resident expert for one key part of a big project?

Want to exercise skills that equip you to excel in your major, minor, or a field of study that whispers “try me”?

Want to see your research create public impact, right away?

Theater with a Mission (TWAM) wants to talk with you!

bengunter@theaterwithamission.com.
Yes
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  • Day: Tuesday, September 2
    Start Time: 4:00
    End Time: 5:00
    Zoom Link: https://fsu.zoom.us/j/94967065555
  • Day: Thursday, September 4
    Start Time: 12:00
    End Time: 12:30
    Zoom Link: https://fsu.zoom.us/j/97521107673
  • Day: Friday, September 5
    Start Time: 2:00
    End Time: 2:30
    Zoom Link: https://fsu.zoom.us/j/97119160788

UROP Program Elements

Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
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2025
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