PAS membership meetings will be held in person in the Classroom at the Florida Public Archaeology Network (FPAN), Coordinating Center located at 207 E. Main Street in downtown Pensacola. Free parking is available at FPAN. Lectures run from 7 – 8 PM and light refreshments will be served.
2025 Fall Speaker List:
September 09 “Tales from the Trowel”: Learn about the inspiration behind the Tales from the Trowel children’s chapter book series and how real archaeological discoveries become engaging stories for young readers. Explore the history and archaeology behind Luna the Cat and forthcoming book Diego the Donkey, as well as the research that brought each story to life. Discover how storytelling can inspire the next generation to appreciate archaeology, history, and heritage preservation. Mike Thomin, Director of Education and Interpretation at the Florida Public Archaeology Network, co-writes each book in the series with archaeologists across the state.
October 13 “Early Spanish Florida”: An overview of the first 250 years of the Spanish colony of Florida, 1513-1763. Covering the twists and turns of the Spanish strategies to build a Florida colony needed to hold the Atlantic coast and protect their gold fleets sailing across the gulf stream from Cuba to Spain. The Spanish attempts of military conquest and missionization of Native Americans, that failed and the encroachment by their European rivals resulting in the loss of Florida to the British. Dr. Judy Bense, President and Professor Emerita at the University of West Florida.
November 10 “Legacy Collections in Crisis”: Legacy Collections stewarded across the country are facing similar problems of inaccessibility and degradation. Learn how legacy collections and the curation crisis are being addressed across the country and how a 1970s collection is being managed at UWF under current curation best practices and new NAGPRA regulations. Gabby Quigley, graduate student at UWF focusing on Bioarchaeology, worked in Cultural Resource Management for two years before pursuing a masters and works as the NAGPRA Graduate Research Assistant at the UWF Archaeology Institute.
December 08 “The Heritage Monitoring Scouts (HMS) Program in the Florida Panhandle”: The Heritage Monitoring Scouts (HMS) Florida program was created by the Florida Public Archaeology Network to track changes to cultural sites at risk from threats like sea level rise and erosion. With the program’s 10-year anniversary, this presentation will dive into HMS and the impact of the program from Pensacola to Tallahassee. Kate Schreiber, Graduate Assistant and Heritage Monitoring Scouts Coordinator with FPAN, UWF graduate student studying historical archaeology.
2027 Spring Speaker List:
January 12 “Small Finds with Big Stories: Identifying and Interpreting the Smallest Artifacts”: From beads to seeds, the smallest artifacts have the biggest stories to tell. Explore how to identify and interpret the smallest artifacts and why their presence or absence can completely change how we understand the past. Dr. Mary Furlong Minkoff, Exec. Dir., Florida Public Archaeology Network (FPAN). Mary oversees a network of regional centers dedicated to promoting stewardship, public appreciation, and the value of Florida’s archaeological heritage through community engagement.
February 09 “Experiential Archaeology”: Connect better with the past by practicing ancient crafts. Learn about the unique insights you can gain by doing things in the old-fashioned way. We’ll make pinch pots to better understand one of the most common artifacts – pottery sherds. Case Draughn, UWF graduate student.
March 09 “Stories in the Shoreline: Archaeology, Community, and a Changing Apalachicola Bay”: The Apalachicola River and Bay system supported communities for thousands of years, but changing ecosystems are reshaping the landscape and its cultural heritage. Explore how archaeology, environmental monitoring, and community partnerships help document these changes while providing valuable insights for the future stewardship of Florida’s Forgotten Coast. Nicole Bucchino Grinnan, RPA; Assistant Director, UWF Archaeology Institute and a Ph.D. candidate at the University of St Andrews in Scotland researching on land and underwater archaeology exploring long-term relationships between people, places, and the environment.
April 13 “UWF Archaeological Field School 2026-27”: Faculty from UWF, Department of Anthropology will present the results of recent fieldwork, including documenting new sites in the Blackwater River and continued excavations at the mid-18th-century Apalachee mission village of San Joseph de Escambe in Molino. Also covering planned investigations for the 2027 summer field schools. Dr. John Bratten, Professor of Anthropology, Dr. John Worth, Professor of Anthropology, and William Wilson, Faculty Research Associate at the UWF Archaeology Institute.
No pre-registration is required. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook for more information. Pensacola Archaeological Society, Inc. A Chapter of the Florida Anthropological Society, PAS is a 501©3 non-profit organization.
Pensacola Archaeological Society 