Ada Ferrer, author of Cuba: An American History
The George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida cordially invite you to attend the annual Michael Gannon Lecture with guest speaker Ada Ferrer, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning book, Cuba: An American History.
This program will take place in the Smathers Library Grand Reading Room on Tuesday, January 24th from 4 to 5:30 p.m. A book signing will follow from 5:30-6 p.m. Books will be available for purchase or you can bring your own copy.
Seating is limited. Please RSVP by Friday, January 20th, at 5 p.m. Virtual attendees will be sent a link a few days before the event.
Limited paid parking can be found at either the Stadium Club, behind 1802 W. University Ave. or the lot across from Library West, 1542 W. University Ave.
About the Author
Ada Ferrer is the Julius Silver Professor of History and Latin American and Caribbean Studies at New York University. A specialist on Cuba and its place in the history of the hemisphere, she is the author of three award winning books: Insurgent Cuba: Race, Nation, and Revolution, 1868-1898 (University of North Carolina Press, 1999), which won the 2020 Berkshire Book Prize; Freedom’s Mirror: Cuba and Haiti in the Age of Revolution (Cambridge University Press, 2014), winner of the Frederick Douglass Prize from the Gilder Lehrman Center at Yale University and prizes from the American Historical Association; and Cuba: An American History (Scribner/Simon & Schuster, 2021), for which she was awarded the 2022 Pulitzer Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in History. She will speak on this latest book for the lecture.
Ferrer was born in Cuba just as the island was undergoing the upheaval and revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power. Her father emigrated to New York in 1962, and her mother followed a year later, when Ferrer was 10 months old. She grew up in New Jersey, where her family maintained close ties with Cuban traditions and the local Cuban community, and where events in Cuba always had an impact on their lives. Ferrer received her BA from Vassar in 1984, took her Masters in History at the University of Austin, Texas (1988) and graduated with her PhD in History from the University of Michigan in 1995. She immediately joined the history faculty at New York University, forging an outstanding academic career there ever since. She is the recipient of more than a dozen major fellowships, honors, and awards, the latest being (in addition to the Pultizer), the 2019 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship and the 2018-2019 Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers Fellowship, New York Public Library.
Our gratitude to the Michael Gannon Endowment Fund and for making this lecture possible.
About the Michael Gannon Lecture
The annual Gannon Lecture commemorates the achievements of Prof. Michael Gannon, Distinguished Service Professor, remembered at the University of Florida as an outstanding teacher, scholar, and advocate for fairness and academic integrity. Nationally known for his books on Florida history and the history of World War II, Gannon’s career encompassed work as a broadcaster and author, as a priest in the Catholic Church, a professor of religion, ethics, and history, and a leader in promoting history to both academia and the public.
At different points in his life he stood between police lines and student demonstrators at protests, headed major research initiatives on Florida’s colonial history, represented the university in overseas academic collaborations with Spain, and penned best-selling works on naval warfare in World War II. The Michael Gannon Lecture features talks by fellow scholars who focus on topics he himself promoted or followed, including history of religion, Hispanic culture in the United States, the second World War, and the place of Florida in American history.
A special thanks to our co-sponsors the University of Florida Department of History, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies.