Through the foresight and generosity of Hyatt and Cici Brown of Ormond Beach, Florida, an endowment was established in 2009 to facilitate the development of a new, far-reaching program in Florida archaeology. The program combines existing assets of the University of Florida with new research faculty, enhanced student opportunities, and innovative research projects. The overarching mission of the program is to pursue knowledge about Florida archaeology and surrounding areas within five inaugural research domains: ancient cultures of Florida; coastal lifeways; circum-Caribbean connections; wet site archaeology; and ecological sustainability
Endowed professors focus their research in one or more of these domains, attract and mentor students with shared interests, and collaborate with existing faculty dedicated to Florida and Caribbean prehistory, history, and natural science. Funds available to endowed professors will support both their individual research projects as well as programmatic goals, including graduate student assistantships, undergraduate research projects, and the laboratory costs of annual field schools.
The current Hyatt and Cici Brown Professor of Florida Archaeology is Kenneth E. Sassaman.
Research Funding for Students
The Brown Endowment provides a variety of research funds for graduate and undergraduate students:
Doctoral Research Grants are available for graduate students conducting dissertation research consistent with the goals of the endowment. Proposals developed for submission to external agencies (e.g., National Science Foundation) will double as proposals for endowment grants, and may be seeded with endowment funding (see Grants-in-Aid below). Competitive proposals not funded externally will be subsidized by up to $10,000 with endowment funds. Grant funds can be used for fieldwork, laboratory research, technical analyses, and travel to archives and repositories. Proposals are accepted year round.
Doctoral Research Fellowships are available for advanced Ph.D. candidates for one to two years in the production of a doctoral dissertation. Ideally, candidates will have completed fieldwork and will use funds to offset the costs of living while preparing the dissertation for submission and publication. Annual stipends of up to $20,000 are distributed over the academic year but do not carry a tuition waiver.
Grants-in-Aid of Research are available to undergraduate and graduate students with specific needs in research consistent with the goals of the endowment. Proposals are accepted year round for up to $3000 of research funding. These grants serve the dual purpose of seeding Doctoral Research Grants, and enabling M.A. students and advanced undergraduates to conduct publishable-quality research.
Field School Support
Endowment funds currently support two field schools with $3000 supplements to UF funding. The St. Johns Archaeological Field School, under the direction of Sassaman, is held most summers at sites occupied 7000-4000 years ago on the shores of Lake George, while the Kingsley Plantation Archaeological Field School, under the direction of Dr. James Davidson, is held at the northeast Florida plantation where African-American archaeology was initiated in 1968 by the late Charles H. Fairbanks. Each field school accommodates some 15 undergraduates in six-week sessions, as well as supervisory opportunities for several graduate research assistants funded by UF.
Lecture Series
Launched in Fall 2009, the LSA Lecture Series brings some of the top archaeologists in the country to UF to spend time with students and faculty and to present a public lecture on their latest research. Endowment funds defer the costs of travel and subsistence and provide an honorarium to visiting scholars.