UROP Project

Fiesta 1789: Spanish Florida Crowns a King

history, theater, Florida, reenactment, team

Research Mentor: Dr. Benjamin Gunter, he, his, him
Department, College, Affiliation: Theater with a Mission, Communication and Information
Contact Email: bgunter@fsu.edu
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from mentor): Idy Codington she, hers, her
Research Assistant Supervisor Email: idycodington@theaterwithamission.com
Faculty Collaborators:
Faculty Collaborators Email:

Looking for Research Assistants: Yes
Number of Research Assistants: 6
Relevant Majors: open to all majors
Project Location: On FSU Main Campus
Research Assistant Transportation Required:
Remote or In-person: In-person
Approximate Weekly Hours: 7.5, Flexible schedule (Combination of business and outside of business. TBD between student and research mentor.)
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link:

• Day: Tuesday, September 1
  Start Time: 3:30
  End Time: 4:30
  Zoom Link: https://fsu.zoom.us/j/91854162589
• Day: Wednesday, September 2
  Start Time: 12:00
  End Time: 12:30
  Zoom Link: https://fsu.zoom.us/j/91645388561
• Day: Thursday, September 3
  Start Time: 5:30
  End Time: 6:00
  Zoom Link: https://fsu.zoom.us/j/94944519273

Project Description

This project transports you back to 1789 – a banner year for revolutionary changes in governments and social structures. In weekly meetings with a team of mentors and fellow researchers, you’ll reconstruct the best-documented party in Spanish Florida history. The same year the USA inaugurated its first President and France started a revolution, Florida celebrated the coronation of Spain’s Carlos IV. You’ll research the royal flag, investigate the Native dances performed by City clerks, reconstruct the marches, music, and commemorative coins minted for the parade, read the first English translation of the play presented by Black troops from Cuba, and explore why this festive wrinkle in time still matters today.

Research Tasks: We’ll start with orientation. You’ll get a crash course in the events that make 1789 unforgettable – George Washington’s inauguration in New York, the storming of the Bastille in Paris, Zéspedes’s farewell as Governor in St. Augustine. And you’ll do a deep dive into the details that historians have already printed about Zéspedes’s crowning achievement: a 3-day party chronicled in histories of music, politics, and playmaking.

We’ll proceed to specialization. Each member of the team will select one facet of St. Augustine’s coronation fiesta to research in detail – for example, the commemorative coins described by historians but not publicly accessible through pictures, or the Native dances that documents tell us clerks performed but no one described in choreographic detail, or who acted which parts in the play that citizens of St. Augustine brought back by popular demand all three days of the fiesta. With the help of two mentors and five UROP team members, you’ll build an annotated bibliography of sources, and you’ll produce a poster that suggests ways to reenact your specialty during a reconstruction of the fiesta by Theater with a Mission.


Skills that research assistant(s) may need: You need 5 essential skills for success with “Fiesta 1789”:

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) Creative critical thinking, since every research project demands diligence, hits snags, and profits by calling others in to help. (Required.)

4) Time management, since “Fiesta 1789” 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.)