Presented by Rachel Walton, MLIS and Claire Strom, PhD with Helen Hutchinson ’24 and Reagan Cooney ’25

In August 2024, Claire Strom and Rachel Walton published a new history of Rollins College, written from the perspective of students. The project was a collaborative effort with four Rollins students during a Student Faculty Collaborative Scholarship experience in the summer of 2023. This presentation will discuss the book’s findings, which provide an updated narrative of the college's history, focusing on under-examined periods, such as the Great Depression and the Civil Rights Movement. Drawing from oral histories and archival research, the history delves into how Rollins responded to national challenges and how those responses shaped the college’s identity today. This session will also reflect on the value of student-driven historical research and the role of public history in shaping institutional narratives.