About the Producers of “Every Tongue Got to Confess"
Julian C. Chambliss, Ph.D., is Professor of History and Chair of the Department of History and Coordinator of the Africa and African-American Studies Program at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. His research and teaching interests focus on urban popular culture and development in the United States. His academic writing has appeared in the Rhetoric Review, Florida Historical Quarterly, Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies, Specs: A Journal of Arts & Culture, Studies in American Culture, Georgia Historical Quarterly, and Journal of Urban. In addition, he has published opinion and commentary in popular forums such as the Los Angeles Times, The Orlando Sentinel, The Christian Science Monitor, and National Public Radio (NPR). A scholar of digital history, he has designed digital projects such as Project Mosaic: Zora Neale Hurston and Advocated Recovered to explore Central Florida African-American social history. He is co-recipient of an Associated Colleges of the South (ACS) & Research 1 University Mellon Foundation Collaborative Project grant to explore the creation of digital collaborative ventures to enhance undergraduate engagement with diaspora topics and texts. He is also co-recipient of an ACS Mellon Foundation Faculty Renewal Grant for Project Mosaic: Zora Neale Hurston: A Multidisciplinary Exploration of African-American Culture, a digital project exploring African-American experience. Finally, he is a recipient of an ACS Faculty Advancement Grant for the project Urban Dreams and Urban Disruptions: Transforming Travel Study and Undergraduate Archival Research with Collaborative Interdisciplinary Digital Tools.
Robert Cassanello is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Central Florida. He is the author of To Render Invisible: Jim Crow and Public Life in New South Jacksonville. He also producer of the award winning podcast “A History of Central Florida” as well as the short documentaries “The Committee” and “Filthy Dreamers.” He has co-edited two books: Florida's Working-Class Past: Current Perspectives on Labor, Race, and Gender from Spanish Florida to the New Immigration with Melanie Shell-Weiss; and Migration, and the Transformation of the Southern Workplace since 1945 with Colin J. Davis. Finally, he has published in the Journal of Urban History, Florida Historical Quarterly, and the 49th Parallel. His historical research interests include topics of race, gender, and society in the South.
N. Y. Nathiri, a founding member of the Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community, Inc. (P.E.C.), has served as its executive director for more than 25 years. Under her leadership, P.E.C. programs have received national recognition, including the annual Zora Neale Hurston™ Festival of the Arts and Humanities (ZORA!™Festival) having been named “One of 25 Cultural Tourism Success Stories” by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. She is recipient of several honors, including the Mary Call Darby Collins Award presented by the Florida Secretary of State "in recognition of dedication and volunteer action that has forever changed the course of historic preservation in Florida." Currently, she serves on the board of directors for the Historic Black Towns and Settlements Alliance, Inc., a multi-state collaborative of communities seeking to advance the quality of life for their residents and visitors through heritage and culture. She grew up in Eatonville, and her grandfather, Augustus N. Johnson, was the town's mayor in the 1930s.