Jamin Wells
- Position: Associate Professor
- Department: History and Philosophy
- Office Location: Building 50, Room 142
- jwells2@uwf.edu
- Campus: 850.473.7290
Biography:
Dr. Jamin Wells, associate professor of history, is committed to researching, writing, and teaching a usable past. A graduate of the Hagley Program in the History of Capitalism, Technology, and Culture at the University of Delaware, Dr. Wells has led numerous local, public, and oral history projects, including several grant-funded digital history initiatives. He teaches courses in Florida history, public history, maritime and coastal history, and the occasional methods course.
His first book, Shipwrecked: Coastal Disasters and the Making of the American Beach, won the John Lyman Book Award in U.S. Maritime History. His current research examines the intersection of memory, history, and power in Pensacola, Florida, over the past two centuries.
A graduate of the UWF Faculty LEAD program, Dr. Wells was the recipient of the 2022 President's Award for Leadership in Diversity, the Early Career Award for Distinction in Faculty Research and Scholarly Activities, and the 2020 award for Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring. He currently directs the Public History Graduate Program and serves on the Florida State Historical Marker Council.
Degrees & Institutions:
Wells has an undergraduate degree in history from the University of Rhode Island and master’s degrees from the University of Rhode Island and the University of Delaware. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Delaware where he was a fellow in the Hagley Program in Capitalism, Technology, and Culture.
Research:
Wells's current book project examines the intersection of history, memory, and power in Pensacola, Florida over the last two hundred years. It tells the surprising story -- and far-ranging impacts -- of the two-century fight over the past in "America's First Settlement."
Classes Taught:
US History Since 1877, Surf, Sun, and Sand: History of the American Beach, Maritime History, Playing the Past: Video Games and American History, Oral and Community History, Graduate Seminar in Public History, Graduate Seminar in Florida History
Publications:
“Recognized ‘For What They Were’: The Rise and Fall of the Second Klan in the City of Five Flags,”
[underreview].
"Pensacola's Ku Klux Klan and T.T. Wentworth Jr.: A Preliminary Report" (2021)
Shipwrecked: Coastal Disasters and the Making of the American Beach. Chapel Hill: University of
North Carolina Press, 2020.
“Mapping the Coastal Frontier: Shipwrecks and the Cultural Landscape of the Early Republic
Littoral,” in Alicia Caporaso, ed., Formation Processes of Maritime Archaeological Landscapes
and Sites. Springer, 2017
Affiliations:
American Historical Association
Council on Undergraduate Research
Gulf South Historical Association
National Council on Public History
North American Society for Oceanic History
Keywords: public history; maritime and coastal history; historical memory; Florida history; Pensacola, Florida