News & Blog

Welcome to May which is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month!

As you can imagine, Asian Pacific American as a topic covers vast oceans of identity and information. In fact, an Asian Pacific American is an American (whether born, naturalized, or other) who was born on or has heritage from anywhere on the Asian continent and the Pacific islands of Melanesia (New Guinea, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji and the Solomon Islands), Micronesia (Marianas, Guam, Wake Island, Palau, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru and the Federated States of Micronesia) and Polynesia (New Zealand, Hawaiian Islands, Rotuma, Midway Islands, Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Cook Islands, French Polynesia and Easter Island). These areas cover a wide array of languages, cultures, religions, and ethnicities that have brought countless skills, hopes and dreams to the United States.

UCF Libraries faculty and staff have suggested these books and movies within the library’s collection by or about Asian Pacific Americans. Click the link below to see the full list, descriptions, and catalog links.

Featured Bookshelf: Asian Pacific American Heritage

With the Libraries still on remote access, we do not have our usual extended physical display, but have created a reading list full of additional ebooks and streaming videos for you to enjoy: Asian Pacific American Heritage ereading.

March marks Women’s History Month and St. Patrick’s Day, and the Downtown Campus Library is celebrating. 

Our Women’s History Month exhibit features four women who have significantly contributed to four of the fields that Downtown Campus students study: Urban Planning, Culinary Sciences, Health Services, and Digital Media. Come see who we have featured and read about their inspiring careers. 

Included in the festivities is a paper doll craft. We have different body types to choose from, with clothing stencils that correspond to each body type. You can trace the stencils onto various patterned paper, or you can completely design your own style. Come make a mini-me or a replica of a woman who inspires you. 

If you stop by the Library during March, don’t forget to make a wish on a four-leaf clover. Our Library Leprechaun might just grant you one desire. 

All WomanFest 2020 events for March 19 will be rescheduled for the Fall 2020 semester. Date to be announced in a few weeks.

UCF Libraries and the Women’s & Gender Studies Program are proud to announce the 4th annual WomanFest! Join us for four events featuring amazing women from around campus and in history.

Thursday, March 19, 2020
John C. Hitt Library 223

Women in Academia panel
10:00 – 11:00 am

UCF faculty members Dr. Linda Walters (Biology, Center for Success of Women Faculty), Dr. Amelia Lyons (History), Dr. Nessette Falu (Anthropology), and Dr. RoSusan Bartee (Educational Leadership and Higher Education) discuss their career paths, how to find a work/life balance, and their struggles faced and battles won as women in higher education. Panel moderated by Dr. Leandra Preston-Sidler (Women & Gender Studies).

Women and Body Image
12:00 – 1:30 pm

The Renfrew Center for Eating Disorders will provide lunch and a presentation on body image, health, and wellness. Event is limited to 50 participants. Please RSVP at: Eventbrite: Women and Body Image

Women’s History Trivia Contest
2:00 – 3:30 pm

How much do you know about women’s history? UCF Libraries and the Women & Gender Studies Program are hosting a rousing pub-style trivia game featuring questions about interesting women in history, female firsts at UCF, and songs by well-known female musicians. Make new friends as we play in teams. Will you come out on top?

Women & Leadership with Rep. Anna Eskamani
6:00 – 7:00 pm

Florida Representative and UCF alumnae Anna Eskamani discusses women, politics, activism and leadership.

Women’s History Month began as a week-long celebration in Sonoma, California in 1978 which was centered around International Women’s Day on March 8. A year later during a women’s history conference at Sarah Lawrence College, participants learned how successful the week was and decided to initiate similar in their own areas. President Carter issued the first proclamation for a national Women’s History Week in 1980. In 1987, Congress (after being petitioned by the National Women’s History Project) passed Pub. L. 100-9 designating March as Women’s History Month. U.S. Presidents have issued proclamations on Women’s History Month since 1988.

The University of Central Florida community joins together to celebrate Women’s History Month across multiple campuses with a wide variety of activities including the Women in STEM @ UCF panel discussion, a special screening of the student-produced film, Filthy Dreamers, and WomanFest 2020. You can also view the Women First at UCF Project on the display wall at the John C. Hitt Library. The project was a collaboration between UCF Libraries Special Collections and University Archives, Dr. M.C. Santana from the Women’s and Gender Studies Program, and Dr. Robert Cassanello from the Department of History. Full details about the project, exhibit reception information and the UCF Celebrates the Arts Panel can be found on the Libraries blog.

Here at the UCF Libraries, we have created a list of books about women, both history and fiction, suggested by staff. Please click on the read more link below to see the full book list with descriptions and catalog links.

Featured Bookshelf: Women’s History Month

And don’t forget to stop by the John C. Hitt Library to browse the featured bookshelf on the 2^nd (main) floor near the bank of two elevators for additional Women’s History Month books and DVDs.

Wednesday, March 4, 2020
2:00 – 4:00 pm
John C. Hitt Library room 223

Join UCF Libraries for a film screening of the College Television Emmy award winning documentary, Filthy Dreamers. This student-produced project focuses on efforts to restrict academic freedom for women who attended Florida State College for Women in the late 1920s. Project faculty advisers Dr. Robert Cassanello and Dr. Lisa Mills with be joined by narrator Dr. Connie Lester to facilitate a discussion after the screening.