International Mother Earth Day April 22, 2012

FAU Libraries Oral History Digital Collection features the interviews of Dr. Leonard Berry who discusses his environmental work experiences and research contributions. This effort is in celebration of  Dr. Berry’s renowned career of teaching from a global perspective to foster an awareness of environmental issues.

In observance of International Mother Earth Day, FAU’s Digital Library highlights the contributions of  this Distinguished Research Professor, whose work spans three continents. In Africa and Asia, Dr. Berry studied tropical environments and assisted in regional planning for the Government of Tanzania. Since coming to the United States in 1970, he has worked on environmental and development training programs for the U.S. Agency for International Development(USAID), United Nations Development Program, and United Nations Environment Program. The British-born environmentalist also worked for the World Bank and the Global Environment Facility in a number of capacities.  

Founder and director of  FAU’s Center for Environmental Studies, Dr. Berry, who was also an FAU Provost, is Director of the Florida Climate Change Initiative and principle investigator on several projects including a Florida Department of Transportation study to assess the impact of sea level rise on transportation infrastructure. In 2010, he was named an FAU expert on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Listen or read Dr. Berry’s interview conducted as part of the Department of History’s Oral History project.

Diversity and Digital Collections@FAU Libraries

For Black History Month, the Digital Library features its Pearl City Oral History Collection. Pearl City was Boca Raton’s pioneering African-American community. One of the featured interviews is with Ms. Lois Dolphus Martin where she describes her 1930s segregated school experience at Roadman’s Elementary School, the first school in Pearl City.

 The Roadman Elementary SchoolRoadman Elementary School

The school was first called Boca Elementary and the name was changed when it was moved to Dixie Highway and what is now Glades Road here in Boca Raton, Florida.   Martin’s firsthand account sheds light on race relations as they existed in Delray Beach and Boca, and the events and changes over the decades which brought diversity to our community. To read and listen to Lois Martin’s interview or other Pearl City resident interviews click here.

Studs Terkel: 1912 to 2008

Studs (Louis) Terkel, broadcaster and oral historian, born May 16 1912; died October 31, 2008
See
ChicagoTribune Obituary

Over 40 years ago Studs Terkel began a conversation with the American people, asking them to expose their everyday lives. He tenderly and truthfully told our story (the
American and the human) throughout his career as broadcaster and writer. His two well known books, Working (1974) and Race: How blacks and whites think and feel about the American obsession (1992), are good examples of his oral history style. Continue reading