February 13, 2025: Dr. Evan Bennett

The Long Human History of Tampa Bay
Dr. Evan Bennett

People have lived in the Tampa Bay area for far longer than there has been a bay. Much of the record of human life around the bay has been left in mounds and middens or etched on its shorelines. Too often, though, in the history of the region, these records have been ignored, treated as mere prologue, or, perhaps worst of all, mythologized. As we confront Tampa Bay’s future, it’s all the more important to remember the bay’s human history is unbroken. Historian Evan Bennett will discuss the need to – and the challenges of – pulling together archaeology and history in writing about Tampa Bay’s long past.

Zoom registration link: https://tinyurl.com/yxxr23y3


Dr. Evan Bennett is an associate professor of history at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, where he teaches courses in Florida history, maritime history, and labor history. He was born and raised in Tampa and earned his BA and MA in history at the University of South Florida before completing a PhD in history at the College of William & Mary. His most recent book is Tampa Bay: The Story of an Estuary and Its People.


This monthly Archaeology Lecture series is co-sponsored by the Alliance for Central Gulf Coast Archaeological Society (CGCAS) and Weedon Island Archaeological Research and Education (AWIARE).