Landing humans on the moon was just a dream when UCF was founded in 1963. But we dared to believe — developing the talent and inventing the technologies to make it reality. That same spirit still drives us today.

We are��America’s Space University. And we celebrate UCF Space Week to honor our origin as we dare to build what’s next.

Where Global Leaders Unite to Forge the Future of Space

Houston, do we understand each other?

Imagine living about 250 miles above Earth, traveling at approximately 17,500 mph, surrounded by some of humanity’s most sophisticated technology and realizing the person beside you calls a piece of equipment by a different name.

Welcome to the International Space Station (ISS), where rocket science sometimes requires a language lesson.

Understanding one another in space requires linguistic flexibility, cultural awareness and cultural intelligence.

The station is an extraordinary experiment in human communication. Astronauts and cosmonauts from different countries, languages, professional backgrounds, and cultural traditions must live, work, and solve problems together — and occasionally disagree — for months at a time in a confined environment. On Earth, a misunderstanding may lead to an awkward conversation. In space, where procedures can involve complex machinery, scientific experiments or emergency responses, clear communication can become a matter of safety.

This raises an interesting question: What does it really mean to understand one another in space?

The answer involves more than knowing the right vocabulary. It requires linguistic flexibility, cultural awareness, and what we might call cultural intelligence: the ability to observe, question assumptions, and adapt when communicating across cultural boundaries.

Somewhere Between Russian and English

English and Russian have long played central roles aboard the station. The U.S.-led portion operates primarily in English, while Russian is used extensively in the Russian segment and in communications with Russian mission controllers. Crews train in the languages needed to work with international partners, but everyday communication rarely follows a textbook perfectly.

During the first long-duration ISS mission in 2000, crews communicated in a mix of Russian and English they called “Runglish.”

During the first long-duration ISS mission in 2000, Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev described how the crew communicated using a mixture they jokingly called “Runglish”— part Russian, part English. Krikalev explained that crew members switched between the two languages when they lacked a word in one.

The practice did not disappear with Expedition 1. Astronaut Jeff Williams later described conversations with Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov in much the same way. Each would try to speak the other’s language, and together they would simply “work through it.”

From a language professor’s perspective, this is fascinating. Successful communication doesn’t always require linguistic perfection. It requires adaptability. Speakers repeat information, simplify explanations and use shared technical vocabulary to achieve shared understanding.

When ‘On’ and ‘Off’ Become a Language Problem

One story from the Shuttle-Mir program — a 1994–98 space collaboration between the United States and Russia — captures the challenge.

Astronauts encountered the Russian commands включить (�������ܳ��󾱳�’ — switch on) and отключить (�dzٰ����ܳ��󾱳�’ — switch off).

To an American ear still learning Russian, these opposite commands could sound uncomfortably similar.

Surely English would solve the problem. But to their Russian colleagues’ ears, “on” and “off” could also be surprisingly easy to confuse.

Suddenly, neither language was the “easy” one. We naturally assume our own language, habits and ways of expressing ideas are obvious, but the other person may face the same difficulty from the other direction. Recognizing that is a reason to check understanding before acting.

Language Is Only Half the Conversation

Vocabulary matters, but knowing every word doesn’t guarantee understanding someone’s intent. People can have different expectations about hierarchy, disagreement, humor or silence. An instruction intended to sound efficient may seem abrupt; a cautious response may be mistaken for uncertainty.

This is where cultural intelligence matters.

Trust also develops in ordinary moments. Space station crews share meals, celebrate holidays and bring traditions from home into orbit. These interactions help them connect beyond their assignments.

Former NASA astronaut Robert Cabana described learning Russian language and culture as part of building trust with Russian colleagues. He explained that even learning enough of another person’s language to communicate politely can help ease communication challenges.

And Then Comes the Matryoshka

One illustration of that connection comes after astronauts return to Earth.

In December 2025, NASA astronaut Jonny Kim returned to Kazakhstan aboard Soyuz MS-27 with Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky. During 245 days in space, they had orbited Earth 3,920 times and traveled nearly 104 million miles. After landing, Kim displayed a matryoshka, a traditional Russian nesting doll painted in his likeness.

In July 2026, the tradition continued. NASA astronaut Chris Williams returned aboard Soyuz MS-28 after 241 days in space alongside Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev. Waiting for them were personalized matryoshkas depicting the crew as welcome-home gifts.

A small cultural object marked the end of an extraordinary technological journey. It shows how culture travels with us, shaping how we recognize one another and find meaning in shared experiences.

From the ISS to UCF and Beyond

ɫ����, the connection between language learning and space exploration has particular resonance. As we prepare scientists and engineers to contribute to the future of aerospace and exploration, we can also help them develop the communication skills international collaboration demands.

As international crews venture farther from Earth with less immediate mission control support, they’ll need to clarify intentions and navigate differences.

Languages belong in that preparation. An engineer must explain technical decisions. A scientist must work through disagreements with collaborators.

Future international crews may spend longer periods farther from Earth, with less immediate support from mission control. Translation technologies can help with words. Crews will still need to clarify intentions, navigate differences and be willing to ask, “Is that what you mean?”

A Russian language classroom may seem removed from a spacecraft. Yet both ask people to work through unfamiliar ideas and learn from someone with a different perspective.

Perhaps the next great challenge in space exploration is not only how far we can travel, but how well we can travel together.

Wherever humanity goes, one question remains useful: Мы понимаем друг друга?

Do we understand each other?

Guests entering the room needed to immediately understand the story, Swift reasoned.

UCF’s newest Pegasus Partner, Universal Destinations & Experiences, recently joined UCF to launch a first-of-its-kind school for future themed entertainment leaders.

For Swift, a set dresser at Universal Orlando Resort, the answer was more than where to place a prop. As part of a team developing a Halloween Horror Nights house, she helped shape the story guests would experience the moment they entered. Every staged bloodstain, overturned object and carefully placed detail served a purpose, even to visitors who rushed through the room with their eyes squeezed shut.

“You might sit there and pretend to be the person and think, ‘How would that look here? How would that inform the space?’” Swift says.

For the recent UCF theatre graduate, questions like that are part of her dream job.

Finding Her Place Behind the Curtain

Born and raised in Orlando, Swift grew up drawing, painting, singing and sewing. She once imagined a future in interior design, and she loved performing. But backstage at Boone High School, she discovered a place where all her talents could truly thrive. Stage production combined artistic expression, teamwork, problem-solving and endless opportunities to keep learning. It was the first glimpse of a career where creativity could shape experiences and bring stories to life.

“I’ve always been a creative person who really liked learning different methods of creation,” she says. “I never really stuck to one medium.”

Theatre gave those interests a home. It also gave Swift the confidence to build a career around them.

UCF’s College of Arts and Humanities offered what she couldn’t find elsewhere: a robust undergraduate theatre design and technology track.

“UCF was truly the only place where design and technology took importance in the space of theatre,” Swift says.

An Education Built Around Doing

ɫ����, Swift learned industry-standard techniques and applied them through eight production assignments. She served as a light board operator, props manager, audio technician, scenic paint charge and associate projections designer. Each role helped her understand how the parts of a production come together.

For Sweeney Todd at Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, Swift translated the scenic designer’s vision into paint treatments and led students in applying them. For Legally Blonde, she helped use projection mapping to transform scenic pieces with changing colors, textures and video.

“You’re not just learning the theory. You’re doing it as well,” she says. “That’s where I feel I learned the most.”

Swift believes theatre education is often misunderstood as training for performers. Behind every production are people who design, build, budget, research, troubleshoot and communicate under tight deadlines. Those skills can carry graduates into film, television, theme parks and other fields.

“If you know theatre, then you understand that those people can do anything,” Swift says.

Creating the Scare

Swift joined Universal during her sophomore year. This year, she was selected for the team that helps create immersive environments for Halloween Horror Nights houses.

That work includes creating the elements that make every room horrifyingly convincing. Swift and her team also secure the props so they stay in place as guests move through the house.

She enjoys walking through the houses among the guests and watching them react. Whether she’s choosing furniture or making a new prop look worn, she draws on what she learned at UCF: The smallest detail can tell a larger story.

Swift once walked through Halloween Horror Nights wondering how its frightening worlds were made. She came to UCF to learn how to build them. Now, she brings them to life — down to the clues on the kitchen floor.

As UCF works to fuel discovery and innovation, alumni like Annie Swift ’26 show what�� Knights can create when they carry their curiosity, ingenuity and determination into the world. Join , and help build a future the world has only begun to imagine.

That is the world Alex Bair ’16 helps power every day.

October is National Arts and Humanities Month.

The UCF College of Arts and Humanities graduate works for Cast & Crew, a company operating at the intersection of entertainment, finance and technology. While the company is often described as a payroll provider, its work extends far beyond paychecks, helping productions manage labor compliance, workforce systems, production accounting and the increasingly sophisticated financial infrastructure required to support film and television at scale.

For Bair, the role has become an unexpected way to combine two sides of himself that never felt entirely separate: creativity and complex systems of thinking.

“It’s really the culmination of these many different modalities coming together that makes you a complete person,” he says.

That mindset has shaped nearly every step of his journey.

Lessons Passed Down

Long before Bair entered the entertainment industry, stories from his grandfather helped shape how he viewed work, education and opportunity.

His grandfather participated in a work-study program connected to Henry Ford in Detroit, balancing classes at night with work during the day. Students were expected not only to study and work hard, but to demonstrate discipline and financial responsibility by saving part of their wages.

Those stories stayed with Bair growing up.

The lesson was never simply about earning a paycheck. It was about curiosity, continuous learning and building a meaningful life.

That philosophy would later guide him through an industry constantly evolving through technology and innovation.

Finding Direction at UCF

Bair originally attended another state university before transferring to UCF after his grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, allowing him to be closer to family.

Majoring in theatre, he immersed himself in storytelling, communication and performance. The experience sharpened his confidence and taught him how to think creatively, adapt quickly and communicate clearly across different environments.

At the time, he did not envision a future in fintech or entertainment infrastructure.

But looking back, he sees how those experiences prepared him for exactly that kind of work.

“People think they have to pick one thing and stay in one lane forever,” Bair says. “But your experiences build on each other.”

The arts, he says, taught him far more than performance. They taught him how to navigate ambiguity, connect ideas and understand people, skills that became invaluable in the professional world.

The Business Behind Entertainment

As productions have grown increasingly complex, the entertainment industry has become deeply reliant on sophisticated financial and technological systems operating behind the scenes.

Through his work at Cast & Crew, Bair helps support the financial backbone of film, television and theater productions, from payroll and production accounting to the intricate web of budgets, contracts and labor agreements that make creative work possible.

While many people see intimidating systems and technical jargon, Bair is drawn to understanding how the pieces fit together. He discovered he had a natural aptitude for the operational and fintech concepts shaping the industry, finding a career where technology, finance and creativity intersect.

Rather than viewing entertainment and business as separate worlds, Bair sees them as inseparable. Behind every performance is an invisible infrastructure that allows storytellers to create.

Today, those systems continue evolving rapidly through automation, digital platforms, artificial intelligence and large-scale workforce technologies. Bair operates in the middle of that transformation, helping support the infrastructure behind productions across the entertainment landscape.

A Different Kind of Career Story

Looking back, Bair hopes students understand they do not need to have every detail of their future perfectly mapped out.

He welcomes each experience as another layer to who he is. Instead of treating new opportunities as a tradeoff, he approaches them as a new scene in his unique story.

The arts and technology. Creativity and finance. Storytelling and systems. In an industry increasingly shaped by innovation and constant change, that openness to learning may be more valuable than ever.

“I don’t think you need to have it all figured out,” he says. “I think you have to love something.”

For nearly three decades, Larry Cooper helped shape the UCF School of Visual Arts and Design through his work as an educator, master book artist and printmaker. Cooper, who died Sept. 4, 2026, helped establish UCF’s book arts program, introducing generations of students to the craft of making books by hand.

Cooper earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art from Memphis College of Art and a Master of Fine Arts in Studio Art from the University of Georgia. When he joined UCF in 1996 as an assistant printmaker working with Ke Francis, he began a career that would touch nearly every corner of the visual arts community at UCF. He taught across undergraduate and graduate curricula, served as assistant director of the UCF Gallery and Flying Horse Editions, and became one of the school’s most respected educators and collaborators.

Francis first met Cooper in Memphis, Tennessee, where Cooper had been a classmate of Francis’ daughter, Kerry, at Memphis College of Art. The two later took a workshop together on case-making and their friendship continued as Cooper pursued his career in book arts and printmaking.

“I knew Larry for almost 34 years,” Francis says. “He was a master craftsman, a creative collaborative partner with the visiting artists who came to work at the press, and a much-loved, patient and thoughtful teacher of printing and the book arts. He was a generous and supportive friend, a kind and patient man with a great sense of humor, who will be missed by all of us who knew him.”

“There is not an area of SVAD that Larry did not impact,” says Kevin Haran, professor and associate director of studio art and Jenkins Distinguished Professor in Community Arts.

Haran describes Cooper as a warm friend who was also an exceptional collaborator.

“Larry was gifted at teamwork and was an extremely creative problem solver,” Haran says.

Building Programs and Mentoring Students

For many students, Cooper was their first introduction to book arts, sharing the technical skills and attention to detail that defined his own work. Cooper was an influential mentor to student interns at Flying Horse Editions and oversaw the internship program in the UCF Gallery.

Chris Saclolo ’09, who studied under Cooper before becoming a book conservator at UCF Libraries, remembers him as both an influential teacher and longtime supporter of Special Collections and University Archives, where he regularly brought his students to engage with the university’s book arts collection.

“Larry had a very calm demeanor about himself, which made learning from him so much more enjoyable, especially when learning a very detailed craft like bookbinding. I grew to love book arts because of Larry.” — Chris Saclolo ’09, UCF Libraries book conservator

“Larry was my first instructor who introduced me to book arts. He would always take the time to help you figure out a specific binding structure and would make it look so easy,” Saclolo says. “Larry had a very calm demeanor about himself, which made learning from him so much more enjoyable, especially when learning a very detailed craft like bookbinding. I grew to love book arts because of Larry.”

Cooper’s mentorship continued to influence Saclolo’s career. He wrote a recommendation letter for Saclolo’s application to a book arts graduate program in Chicago, where Saclolo received a fellowship. After graduating, Saclolo returned to UCF as a book conservator at Special Collections and University Archives, where Cooper continued bringing his book arts students to the library.

“Since my return, I have had the pleasure of speaking to his classes and sharing the book arts collection with his students every semester,” Saclolo says. “To me, it was a full circle moment that I could share our book arts collection with his students the way Larry introduced it to me.”

Cooper regularly brought classes to Special Collections and encouraged students to engage directly with artist books and rare materials. Cooper’s own work also became part of the university’s collections. One of his own artist books is held in the department’s permanent collection and was one of the first artist books donated to the archive.

Extending UCF’s Reach Through Book Arts

While Cooper’s influence was felt daily on campus, his work also helped raise the profile ɫ����’s visual arts programs nationally.

Working through Flying Horse Editions and Gardyloo Handmade Books, Cooper collaborated with artists including William T. Wiley, David Humphrey and James Siena. His design for Siena’s Sequence One, published in 2009, contributed to the Museum of Modern Art’s acquisition of the book for its permanent collection.

Cooper also worked closely with artist Robert Rivers, helping transform drawings from Rivers’ Patagonia travels into handmade books that eventually entered collections including the National Gallery of Art and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.

“Larry was a great friend who I’ve known since 1994,” Rivers says. “If you needed help, Larry would jump right in to assist without you having to ask. He liked being part of a team. Larry never interrupted anyone and was a calm, steady presence. He would always listen and never made it about himself.”

“[Larry] was an influential mentor to many student interns at [Flying Horse Editions], sharing with them his unique perspective on a profession in the arts.” — Theo Lotz, Flying Horse Editions director

Cooper’s own work is represented in collections including the National Gallery of Art, the Library of Congress, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

At Flying Horse Editions, a collaborative research studio, Cooper worked alongside Director Theo Lotz and external artists and printmakers on projects such as Carmon Colangelo’s O LAND O, a limited-edition portfolio that was acquired by the Saint Louis Art Museum.

“Larry’s interest in the idea of the book as an art object, in and of itself, was important to the early Flying Horse projects. His expertise in conceptual bookbinding drove collaborative projects with artists such as William T. Wiley, David Humphrey and James Siena,” says Lotz, who is also a senior lecturer of studio art. “Cooper’s design for Siena’s book, Sequence One, published in 2009, was a contributing factor to the Museum of Modern Art in New York acquiring the book for its permanent collection. His easygoing collaborative spirit can be felt in FHE’s studio culture to this day.”

Lotz also remembered Cooper as an influential mentor to many student interns at Flying Horse Editions, sharing his perspective on a career in the arts.

“He was an influential mentor to many student interns at FHE, sharing with them his unique perspective on a profession in the arts,” Lotz says.

A Presence Throughout SVAD

In addition to his teaching and studio work, Cooper served as assistant director of the UCF Gallery, where he helped organize exhibitions, support artists and connect the university with the broader community.

“Larry played a vital role in the UCF Art Gallery, sharing his expertise during installation and careful handling of artwork for every exhibition,” says Shannon Lindsey, associate lecturer and director of the UCF Art Gallery. “His keen understanding of materials, attention to detail and remarkable ability to solve even the most complex installation challenges made him an invaluable part of the gallery and the success of our exhibitions.”

The Legacy He Leaves Behind

Many colleagues recalled Cooper’s sense of humor, his interest in pop culture, B horror and science fiction films, and quirky T-shirts.

Haran has a fond memory from the print shop, when Cooper laid out a collection of animal skins that had arrived for use as book covers. Among them was a yellowish, diamond-shaped piece that Haran could not identify.

It was stingray leather.

Cooper’s legacy is best measured through the people and programs he influenced — the students he taught, the artists whose work he helped bring to life and the books that remain in collections around the word — but also in the friendships he built over a lifetime.

Cooper is survived by his daughter, Raia Cooper ’26, his former wife, Micaela Riseling, and his mother, Jane. He will be missed by his SVAD colleagues and the countless students he mentored.

A faculty exhibition featuring Cooper’s work is planned, with a taking place in connection with the exhibition on Oct. 26 at 5 p.m. in the UCF Art Gallery.

Lecturing within the College of Arts and Humanities since 2019, DiLiberto is on a quest to show UCF students how the timeless classic relates to their own journeys.

“The central premise of the Odyssey places the main character, Odysseus, on a journey home following the Trojan War. Along the way, he perseveres through personal tragedies, overcomes impossible odds, and grows as both a king and a human being,” DiLiberto says. “From personal growth to resilience to rising to the occasion, the core themes within the Odyssey are relevant to the lives of all UCF students, regardless of their personal background or professional majors. It is a deep and thoughtful examination of all the things that makes us human.”

UCF Courses Inspired by the Odyssey

DiLiberto and several faculty from the College of Arts and Humanities often consider new and innovative ways to integrate classics into coursework applicable to students across all majors.

• HUM 2020: Encountering the Humanities –��Monsters & Mad Scientists

In 2023, DiLiberto was awarded the forHUM2020 which was partly inspired by characters and concepts found within the Odyssey. DiLiberto designed a “Monsters & Mad Scientists” theme within the general education course she teaches to analyze the unique relationship between science and the humanities as well as answer philosophical questions on human nature.

“Monsters —– whether they be imaginary creatures or bad actors throughout world history —– aren’t just born, they are created through unfortunate events and life circumstances,” says DiLiberto, who was also recognized with the College of Arts and Humanities’ 2025 Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award. “Using monsters as the launching point in these general education courses sets up philosophical discussions [for students studying many disciplines] on society, our culture, and how ‘monsters’ are created.”

• HUM 2020: Athleticism as an Aesthetic

Lecturer Terri Pyle ’92 ’95MA, who earned a doctorate in visual arts: philosophy, aesthetics, and art theory from the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts, explores how Odysseus maintains his physical prowess to endure his journey and ultimately uses sport — archery —�� to take back his kingdom. Nolan’s film as well as the 2024 film The Return��with Ralph Fiennes as the lead, and pieces from the Louvre’s art collection are among several Odyssey-related reference materials covered in the semester.

• PHH 3800: Research Methods in Humanities and Cultural Studies

Senior Lecturer Jeanine Viau, who earned a doctorate in theology and ethics from Loyola University Chicago, prominently features the Odyssey in the course by incorporating selections from Emily Wilson’s 2017 translation of the Odyssey as well as Madeline Miller’s novel, Circe, to discuss some of the darker themes of the epic in relation to violence, power and social dynamics.

• PHH 3100: Ancient Philosophy

The Athenian philosopher Plato engaged deeply with the works of Homer and often refers to them in his dialogues. In this course taught by Brian Reese, an assistant professor and specialist in ancient philosophy, students read selections from Plato’s Republic, which can be understood as a reinterpretation of the Odyssey—one that presents the philosopher, rather than Odysseus, as the epic hero.

UCF Study Abroad: The Odyssey in Real Life

In Summer A 2027, DiLiberto ��— ��a UCF foreign languages (French and Italian) and texts and technology alum — will lead a group ɫ���� students on an abroad experience in Rome. Utilizing a city-as-text approach, the experience will merge on-site visits to Roman monuments, museums and urban spaces with in-depth classroom discussion.

In addition to both historic and contemporary explorations of modern-day Rome, DiLiberto looks forward to philosophical conversations with her students centered on unique Italian locations referenced within the Odyssey.

In these discussions, DiLiberto will emphasize how the Italian regions west of Greece served as the “unknown” locations that Odysseus encountered throughout the text. She will also discuss the Odyssey’s relationship between place and storytelling. As one example, DiLiberto will focus on the Strait of Messina, the water channel that is home to the mythological sea monsters Scylla and Charybdis.

“Odysseus faced a lesser-of-two-evils decision between losing a handful of his soldiers to the six-headed monster, Scylla, or possibly losing his entire ship to the whirlpool, Charybdis,” DiLiberto says. “Like Odysseus, we are often faced with difficult decisions with no good options. How we navigate those decisions speaks to our morals, our character and who we are as people. These are the type of philosophical conversations I look forward to having with my students, and the types of discussions I hope they are having amongst themselves.”

Students interested in HUM 2210: Studies in Culture: Ancient World to the 17^th Century as part of the Study Abroad opportunity can learn more information and apply at the . The deadline to apply is Feb. 15, 2027, but please note space is limited and DiLiberto encourages students to apply as soon as possible.

Researchers in UCF’s Department of English and (CHDR) are slated to (NEH) to create searchable digital editions of Webster’s historic dictionaries, giving scholars, educators and the public unprecedented access to foundational texts that helped shape American English.

The two-year grant will support Noah Webster’s Dictionary Online: Preserving America’s Revolutionary Language Heritage. The project is led by Beth Young, associate professor of English, with co-principal investigators CHDR Associate Director Brook Miller and Professor of English Mark Kamrath, who is co-director of CHDR.

The project will also expand educational opportunities for UCF students.

Undergraduate and graduate students will contribute to proofreading, digital editing and semantic text tagging while gaining internship and research experience across several academic programs. Postdoctoral fellow Abigail Moreshead ’11 ’17MA ’23PhD will help conduct research and supervise the student team, and XML (extensible markup language) Specialist William Dorner ’07 ’10MA ’15PhD will oversee the technical encoding.

Bringing Webster’s Words Into the Digital Age

The project builds on two previous NEH-funded digital humanities initiatives. Drawing on the experience of creating Johnson’s Dictionary Online, the team will create comprehensive digital editions of Webster’s The Compendious Dictionary of the English Language (1806) and An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828).

“This grant enables us to provide digital editions … that are as reliable, accurate and searchable as today’s scholarship demands.” — Beth Rapp Young, UCF associate professor of English

“Noah Webster believed that our new nation needed its own language, not just its own government,” says Young, an affiliate scholar with CHDR. “He correctly predicted that American English would one day be spoken by ‘300 millions’ of people. This grant enables us to provide digital editions of Webster’s dictionaries that are as reliable, accurate and searchable as today’s scholarship demands.”

Unlike existing online versions, which primarily consist of scanned pages or basic text transcriptions, the new editions will include advanced search capabilities, complete transcriptions, high-quality images and scholarly annotations.

The team aims to complete the searchable 1828 edition in time for its 200th anniversary in 2028, followed by the 1806 edition.

Together, the dictionaries capture American English as it was developing during the nation’s formative years, preserving the language used in early American law, politics, education and everyday life.

The project also builds on the , an initiative led by Mark Kamrath that aims to identify, transcribe, organize and ultimately edit the post-revolutionary author’s uncollected writings, making them searchable in an electronic environment. Webster’s dictionaries are from the same era and provide a bridge to understanding Brockden’s texts.

More Than a Dictionary

Webster’s dictionaries remain valuable resources for literary, historical and legal scholarship more than two centuries after their publication. According to the project proposal, courts continue to reference the dictionaries when interpreting the original meaning of constitutional and legal terms, while educators use them to help students understand the language of America’s founding era. The UCF team has already seen evidence of this type of use with Johnson’s Dictionary Online, with the resource being cited by The Atlantic, The New York Times, and U.S. federal and district courts.

By making the texts easier to search and study, the project will enable users to explore Webster’s work in ways that scans can’t.

CHDR’s Susan Xiao will serve as the project’s lead programmer, overseeing development of the digital platform that will power the searchable editions. The website currently hosts full-page images and will ultimately feature advanced search tools, scholarly annotations, and high-resolution entry images designed to make Webster’s landmark dictionaries more accessible to researchers, educators, and the public.

CHDR will host and maintain the project, building on its experience supporting digital humanities initiatives.

Noah Webster’s Dictionary Online: Preserving America’s Revolutionary Language Heritage will be made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this project do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.��

“It’s a perfect day to bounce in Orange County, Florida.”

The Roth Tower project, made possible by a $90 million commitment of Tourist Development Tax revenues from the Orange County Board of County Commissioners, represents a pivotal addition to the Kenneth G. Dixon Athletics Village that strengthens Orange County as a premier destination for sports tourism and community engagement.

When the investment was greenlit in 2023, university and athletics administration knew they wanted to add to the stadium’s art collection, which already features several installations around the concourse that include Knightro, wings of Pegasus (the university’s official seal), UCF’s Big 12 ties and Orlando.

UCF commissioned Harry Foreman ’18 to deliver two murals that pay homage to the UCF story and the university’s relationship to Orlando and Orange County. To execute the installation in the week leading up to the tower’s unveiling, Foreman utilized virtual reality technology as part of his process and enlisted the help of fellow alumni: Nicole Lind ’11, a Burnett Honors Scholar who graduated with a degree in an elementary education, and Paulaiden Minerva ’15, who earned his bachelor’s in marketing through the program.

Foreman studied graphic design and emerging media management and previously completed murals for the UCF Downtown and the Rosen College of Hospitality Management campuses.

“When I was a student I always had so much fun on games days,” Foreman says. “It’s magic being back here.”

The Florida native, who now splits his time between Orlando and Denver, has been an active contributor to the Central Florida’s arts scene for years. He recently was selected to be part of the City of Orlando’s Bloomberg Philanthropies Public Art Challenge, Art Pollination — a prestigious opportunity as Orlando was one of eight cities selected for the $1 million grant out of more than 150 submissions from around the country.

Acrisure Bounce House is his third football stadium mural project. He previously completed installations for the Denver Broncos and Jacksonville Jaguars.

“I always knew I wanted to paint big,” he says.

Here he shares more about his latest creation.

What excited you about this project?

The campus personnel were so willing and excited about my ideas and style that I brought into this that it was almost a perfect match. I led with fun first and then presented some safer ideas. And they said, “Nope. We want the fun.”

I’m grateful and appreciative that I’m creating in a way that is so well received by so many people. Especially with the way we’re doing these murals with minimal color and a gold approach, I think it’s a style that has an elevated look while also having this fun, bubbly, childlike feeling, which is perfect for a football stadium on game day.

Where did you pull inspiration from for the two murals?

A staple in a lot of my mural work is my “orange blossom gang.” They are fun, smiling orange characters that I will sprinkle in throughout a lot of my murals. They act almost as the glue that keeps other imagery and assets like together. They appear in both murals.

For the UCF-themed mural, we have my signature doodle collage style. We’re in the Bounce House, baby. So I tried to have this flowy, bubbly movement with the clouds. I wanted it to feel like it was light and airy.

With regards to Easter eggs, when I was a student, I did artwork around Orlando and I would do this little emanating whoopsie daisy flower. I snuck it into a postcard stamp. The manatee celebrates Central Florida’s natural springs, which is in my opinion, one of the most magical parts about the entire state. I also snuck in a variation of the rubber duck for Spirit Splash.

For the Orange County mural, it is centered in an Art Deco theme and is an ode to how the university is entwined with Orlando. From the downtown corridor to our relationship with the hospitality sector around I-Drive to space and UCF’s engineering and technology roots. And we wanted to include a message to what helped make this possible: “In appreciation of Orange County, Florida, whose continued belief, support and investment will welcome millions through these gates to bounce.”

How do you apply virtual reality technology in your process?

I first started using the VR headset to project my artwork on walls last year. There are many different ways to get your art on your walls through grid systems, sketching freehand, projectors and now through headsets. In this circumstance, I have another mural next week. I’ve got to get in and out. I didn’t want to wait till the nighttime to use a projector. What’s great about the headset is no matter the time of day, you are able to work and operate, and forecast your artwork on a wall.

It’s a really weird, immersive and amazing technology. If you got vertigo like I do, tread lightly. As I’m wearing it, I’m constantly thinking, ‘We are in the future.’ ”

How did your UCF experience help you hone your craft?

“Being at UCF pushed me to be great.” — Harry Foreman ’18, muralist

My UCF experience was not just a four-year degree. I used nearly every offering UCF had — I was in different clubs, at the gym all the time. I was in the engineering lab using the laser cutter for a lot of my school projects. My experience was almost competitive nurture in a sense, learning in a school setting with so many talented creatives around me. Being at UCF pushed me to be great and taught me how to be a shape shifter.

I already was running a business while in school. I immediately graduated and went right into freelancing, and the Orlando community and UCF network at large welcomed me right when I needed it. I booked amazing jobs right out of school. The UCF Downtown project, I would say, is still some of my most impactful work that gets me jobs to this day.

I never in a million years thought murals would allow me to be traveling all over the nation. I’m about to buy my wife a house. It’s a great time to be a muralist. It’s the best job in the world.

What does it mean to you to be able to give back to your alma mater and Orlando in this way?

It’s so special. As a student, and even as an artist, there’s no textbook for success, no single game plan for how to do things. The fact that I get to paint and create in spaces like this, I hope it can inspire the next student. I hope they see this and they say, “That is so cool. I want to do that,” because whenever I saw someone doing it, that was my first response.

If you’re a student that is worried about the creative world that we’re entering into, as long as you’re pushing yourself to make great work, everything you could ever want is already there waiting for you. Orlando as a canvas is the best place to blossom. It was for me.

When Alex Williams ’09 says, “these are exciting times,” just consider where he’s been and where he believes humanity is going.

Williams recently traveled between Virgin Galactic’s headquarters in Tustin, California, and its spaceship factory in Mesa, Arizona, 350 miles from Spaceport America near Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Today, fewer than 800 people have traveled to space. But Virgin Galactic projects that soon 750 or more people — “astronauts” — will ride its spaceships annually.

“My wheelhouse, [going] back to Disney and UCF, is designing experiences that are different, larger than ourselves.”

As the company’s senior manager of program design, Williams is among those responsible for producing a full “experience” around each pinnacle moment.

“My wheelhouse, [going] back to Disney and UCF, is designing experiences that are different, larger than ourselves,” Williams says. “Here, I get to be part of opening space as the next layer of humanity.”

While Virgin Galactic’s early flights made headlines for carrying company founder Sir Richard Branson and a few private astronauts, those brief trips had a bigger purpose.

“We believe deeply in making space accessible for all,” Williams says. “Each spaceflight brings everyone closer. The day is coming for everyday people who watched Apollo and Artemis missions with wonder. It’s coming for the person looking for perspective or the next adventure. They can be astronauts.”

Inside and Outside a Flight to Space

The official term for a flight with Virgin Galactic is “spaceflight expedition.” Passengers don’t board a rocket.

“It’s a spaceship,” Williams says.

Part of the experience, then, is knowing your way into a spacesuit and into your seat aboard the spaceship. It’s bonding with crewmates and being prepared for Mach 3 speed. Preparation is critical, but it’s designed to be much less intense than fortifying oneself for a Mount Everest expedition.

“You’re in New Mexico for less than a week,” Williams says. “We don’t want it to be physically taxing because we want you fully immersed in this monumental experience.”

The spaceflight expedition is approximately 90 minutes from boarding to landing, including several minutes of weightlessness.

“Safety is paramount, so we use an air launch system where a launch vehicle carries our spaceship to a release point of 45,000 feet,” Williams says. “Then the rocket motor kicks in, and the spaceship accelerates to Mach 3. The astronauts are sent back into their seats comfortably. When the motor shuts off, you coast to your highest point. And then the spaceship glides back to Spaceport for a graceful runway landing.”

The immersion surrounds those 90 minutes. It includes hospitality, food and beverage, and bringing astronauts and their families into the culture of the Las Cruces area.

“We test everything,” Williams says. “I’ve learned, for example, that I like hatch chiles.”

They are now part of the carefully designed experience.

Stretching His Own Mind

After four years at Virgin Galactic, Williams has explained the experience so many times that he feels as if he’s taken flight himself.

Even so, he still occasionally struggles to find the words.

“It’s indescribable,” he says.

The technology of safe spaceflight is mostly beyond his understanding, which only adds to the fascination for a kid at heart who grew up in Citrus County, just 90 minutes from Orlando’s theme parks, where he first began stretching his imagination.

“Disney had this unbridled positivity for what the future could be,” Williams says. “I wanted to be a part of something like that, helping push humanity forward, but I wasn’t sure how.”

He began to discover how at UCF, where he majored in art and says he had the freedom to “Frankenstein my educational program together.” The first day he walked into the Student Union, he happened to be walking into auditions for Universal Orlando Resort’s Halloween Horror Nights.

“That experience became a piece to the puzzle,” he says.

A themed attraction class, where he helped design a ride, added another piece. So did operations courses through his hospitality management minor at .

He used all these lessons during his 16 years with Disney, including Walt Disney World Resort, Disneyland Resort and D23.

“And then my ears perked up when I heard about the direction of Virgin Galactic,” Williams says. “I saw it like my own story — in a constant state of becoming.”

“This is a rare experience that can connect us to each other, to our planet and to possibilities to do something good.”

His mindset also parallels Virgin Galactic’s ultimate intent for spaceflight.

“It comes down to optimism,” he says. “This is a rare experience that can connect us to each other, to our planet and to possibilities to do something good. You don’t go up on our spaceship to look out at space — you go up to look back at Earth. As more people do that, we can’t begin to imagine how much good can result from those few minutes.”

Christopher Nolan’s new film adaptation of the Odyssey is an exciting development, since it will introduce new audiences to a classic epic reimagined for our time. This not only sparks interest in the ancient world but also continues a tradition of how people have encountered and reinvented this story over the past three thousand years.

The Odyssey is a work of historical fiction set in the Late Bronze Age, around 1200 BCE. The events take place in the eastern Mediterranean, including coastal areas of Greece and Turkey. The narrative follows the wily Odysseus, a veteran of the Trojan War, who, after 10 years of conflict, spends another decade wandering at sea, longing to return home to his island kingdom of Ithaca. During his absence, his queen, Penelope, and son, Telemachus, must contend with persistent suitors who wish to seize his throne.

The epic is part of a broader tradition about the Trojan War and its aftermath, including the Iliad. Set before the events of the Odyssey, the Iliad focuses on the conflict between the Greek warrior Achilles and his commander, the Mycenaean king, Agamemnon, during the final year of the 10-year siege led by Greek allies. Related works, like Aeschylus’s Agamemnon, a Greek tragedy, and the Roman epic the Aeneid, reimagine familiar characters in new stories, ancient versions of fan fiction set in the Trojan War universe. Even in antiquity, people shaped these traditions for their own times, just as we do today.

A Song of Times Long Past

When a modern reader picks up a printed copy of The Odyssey, it is important to understand what the book represents, since it provides an illusion of more certainty than exists.

It is not known exactly when the stories were originally composed, but they were transmitted for centuries before being written down. Scholars generally believe that the compositions were passed along by singer-storytellers in a folk tradition, with each performance reshaping the lyrics, even after written versions appeared.

The epic represents the collective voices of countless ancient people still singing to us from the past.

Medieval manuscripts from the Byzantine Empire, the Greek-speaking continuation of the eastern Roman Empire, carried forward texts shaped by earlier editions from the Hellenistic period, the centuries following the conquests of Alexander the Great in the late 4th century BCE. The Odyssey is a product of centuries of retelling, variation, copying and selection rather than a straightforward literary composition produced at a specific time in the past.

Modern books of the epic are printed with the name Homer on the cover, but ancient and modern understandings of authorship can be quite different. This is a curious tradition because, even if a historical Homer existed, he did not write the stories printed on the pages. Instead, the epic represents the collective voices of countless ancient people still singing to us from the past.

The Late Bronze Age Collapse and the People of the Sea

The film adaptation contains multiple references to a terrifying threat lurking just beyond the frame. ��Here, the script draws on historically attested seafaring raiders and migrants collectively known by scholars as the “Sea Peoples.”

Scholars debate their origins and identities, but there is historical support for these raiders. Around 1200 BCE, they roamed the region and were blamed for widespread mayhem in royal inscriptions and reliefs at Medinet Habu, the Egyptian mortuary temple where pharaoh Ramses III claimed victories over them. With enigmatic names such as the Peleset and Tjeker, scholars have tentatively proposed connections with known groups, including the Philistines or the Mycenaean Greeks.

The activities of the so-called Sea Peoples coincided with regional collapse at the end of the Bronze Age.

No one knows precisely what led them to migrate or raid coastal cities. The activities of the so-called Sea Peoples coincided with regional collapse at the end of the Bronze Age, a catastrophic period during which great states, including those of the Mycenaean Greeks and the Hittites, who ruled a major empire in modern-day Turkey, disintegrated — ushering in what has traditionally been described as a civilizational “dark age.”

As echoed in the film, the Trojan War traditions themselves cast the returning Greek victors as lawless, seaborne raiders. For example, Odysseus and his crew traditionally begin their voyage with an unprovoked attack on Ismarus, a coastal city whose wealth and women they attempt to carry away. The returning heroes are mobile bandits, evoking the upheavals of the age.

Digging Up Troy

Archaeological research has revealed that the literary landscape of the��Odyssey is not purely mythological. In the late 19th century, a wealthy German businessman and amateur archaeologist named Heinrich Schliemann set out to find the legendary places of the Trojan War. A man of his time, he unsystematically excavated Hisarlik, ancient Troy, in northwestern Turkey beginning in 1870, before turning his attention to Mycenae in Greece in 1876.

At both locations, Schliemann’s local collaborators discovered extraordinary Bronze Age artifacts. Ever the showman, he gave the golden artifacts sensational names like “Priam’s Treasure” and the “Mask of Agamemnon.” While later research showed that the gold artifacts didn’t date to the traditional timing of the Trojan War, the truly contemporaneous remains are significant and informative. Subsequent research confirmed what many once considered the realm of myth: Troy and Mycenae were powerful cities that flourished during the Late Bronze Age.

Setting Sail Into the Unknown

Scholars don’t know if there was a real Trojan War, although it seems plausible that it is a literary construction of ongoing conflicts, dramatized as a single war. Siege warfare is well documented in the Late Bronze Age, and 13th-century BCE diplomatic records from the Hittite Empire appear to record Mycenaean involvement in western Anatolia, supporting the idea that the war is a literary composite.

Equally, the historical identity of Helen, whose face launched a thousand ships, is unknown.

Equally, the historical identity of Helen, whose face launched a thousand ships, is unknown. In Trojan War accounts, she is an ideal, mythologically beautiful woman who provoked the war. Some traditions identify her as the Spartan queen who fell in love with Paris, a Trojan prince, and chose to leave everything behind for a new life across the sea. Others portray her as abducted, with the war an effort to free her.

Skeptics doubt the stories about Helen having inspired a war, dismissing them as romantic or far-fetched. They instead theorize about real motives, such as political strategy, trade interests and regional dominance. But history also shows that wars have been fought over far less.

Why the Odyssey Still Matters

This summer’s popular film adaptation is introducing new audiences to Odysseus’s adventures through its stunning visuals and fresh take on some of humanity’s oldest stories. Among the gods, heroes, and magic of the texts, originally performed as songs, history and archaeology recover traces of a distant past.

An ancient epic like the Odyssey still matters not because it is faithful to an “original” or older story, but because we continue to make it part of our own.

An ancient epic like the Odyssey still matters not because it is faithful to an “original” or older story, but because we continue to make it part of our own. It is living art that keeps us in conversation with real people in the past, who also struggled with war, loss and longing and expressed themselves through art.

By reinterpreting their stories to meet the challenges of our own time, we continue an enduring tradition. As a final thought, if faithfulness to the original Odyssey had been desirable — or attainable — as a goal, the film should have been a musical.

Name:��John Sacher

Position(s):��Professor of history

Why are you interested in this research?
As I tell my first-year students, if you think history is boring, you just haven’t found the right teacher yet.

History is about understanding why things happened. Generally, people are all interested in some “why?” question. Now, the “why” questions each person might find fascinating are different, but there’s something for everyone. I might wonder, “Why does the United States have a two-party system?” or “How did the Confederacy manage to fight for four years in the Civil War?” You might wonder, “Why do we have 50 states?” or “Why do we have an interstate highway system?” or “Why is the Middle East so important?” or even “Why do brides traditionally wear white?”

Regardless of your “why” question, history can provide a lens to help you answer it.

Who inspires you to conduct your research?
My initial inspiration to study history came from my parents. They encouraged me to pursue a degree in whatever interested me, not necessarily one that led to a traditional occupation.

More recently, I think that my inspiration comes from my students. UCF students have great questions. They keep me on my toes. Every semester I’m asked something I’ve never been asked before.�� Also, they are entering adulthood at a time when there are a lot of big unknowns out there — what’s going on with politics, with foreign policy, or with technological changes.�� While I can’t answer all of those questions, I can give them some tools to help them formulate their own answers and maybe some comfort to discover that they are not the first generation to face “big” questions in their immediate future.

How does UCF empower you to do your research?
UCF’s Department of History (and the College of Arts and Humanities and UCF in general) certainly empower my research agenda. As a traditional historian, I don’t need fancy, expensive equipment to conduct my research. That said — teaching can be a different story. I was recently turned into a hologram to teach patrons of about the Constitution!

The most valuable commodity any historical researcher needs is time — time to research, time to think and time to write. I finished my most recent book thanks to a sabbatical which provided that time. The university has also repeatedly given me a teaching schedule that aligns with my research. So, I’m working with undergraduates and graduate students to help them understand the same issues that I grapple with in my research. That synchronicity keeps me on track and energized.

What major grants and honors have you earned to support your research?
I have received several major grants and honors in support of my research. My book A Perfect War of Politics: Parties, Politicians, and Democracy in Louisiana, 1824–1861 (Louisiana State University Press, 2003) won the 2003 Kemper and Leila Williams Prize for the best book on Louisiana history.

Why is this research important?
Historians provide invaluable contributions to understanding today’s political world. We live in a world of a rigid and hostile partisan divide where people are reluctant to trust the media. Historians can fill a void by delivering context for often debated topics such as the electoral college, redistricting, foreign policy, the second amendment, etc. We don’t tell people how to vote, but we grant them the tools to come to their own informed conclusions.

The more one understands founding documents such as the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the Bill of Rights, the better one can make their own assessment of 21^st century political issues and candidates.