Architectural historian Tara Dudley delivers FSU’s 2024 James P. Jones Distinguished Lecture in American History
The Florida State University Department of History is pleased to announce architectural historian and University of Texas at Austin assistant professor Tara Dudley will deliver the 2024 James P. Jones Distinguished Lecture. Dudley will present “Building the Nation: Enslaved and Free Architects, Builders, and Artisans,” Thursday, March 7, in Room 404 of the Bellamy Building. Attendees may also join via Zoom. The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required to attend via Zoom.
Dudley holds a doctorate and master’s in historic preservation from the University of Texas at Austin and a Bachelor of Arts in art history from Princeton University. She currently serves as chair of the Texas State Board of Review, advising the State Historic Preservation Officer regarding National Register nominations, and is the author of “Building Antebellum New Orleans: Free People of Color and Their Influence,” winner of the Association of American Publishers 2022 Prose Award in Architecture & Urban Planning, the 2022 Summerlee Book Prize in Nonfiction from the Center for History and Culture of Southeast Texas and the Upper Gulf Coast), the 2022 Best Book Prize Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians (SESAH), and the University of New Mexico School of Architecture and Planning 2022 On the Brinck Award.
The James P. Jones Distinguished Lecture Series honors the memory of Professor Jim Jones, beloved teacher and scholar in the FSU History Department for 57 years. The series brings a prominent historian of the United States to campus each year to lecture and work with students and faculty. The lectures are open to the public, and those interested are invited to email Dr. Katherine Mooney at as-history@fsu.edu to be put on our mailing list.
Previous lecturers include:
- 2023 Historian Brandy Clay Brimmer “Black Women’s Battles for Survivors’ Benefits in Post-Civil War America”
- 2022 Historian and author Pamela Grundy “Strong and Fearless: the WNBA and the Fight for Racial Justice”
- 2021 Professor Ryan André Brasseaux (Yale) “Louisiana Saturday Night: Representing Cajun Music in America after World War II”
- 2020 Professor Kathryn Olivarius (Stanford) “Necropolis: Disease, Power, and Capitalism in the Cotton Kingdom”
- 2019 Professor Ari Kelman (University of California Davis) “From Manassas to Mankato: How the Civil War Bled into the Indian Wars”
- 2018 Professor Elizabeth R. Varon (University of Virginia) “Joseph T. Wilson’s The Black Phalanx: African American Soldiers and Civil War Memory”
- 2017 Professor David W. Blight (Yale) “Writing Frederick Douglass’s Life: Why and Why Now?”
- 2016 Professor Jane Kamensky (Harvard) “John Singleton Copley and the Art of War”
- 2015 Professor Brian DeLay (University of California Berkeley) "Dam Breaking: Mercantilism, Armaments, and the Demolition of Europe's America"
- 2014 Professor Philip D. Morgan (Johns Hopkins) "Caribbean Slavery"
We are honored to archive the memories of some of Jim's thousands of students, colleagues, and friends. Please visit our memorial page to enjoy these pictures, videos, and stories and to submit your own.