About Us

Faculty

Richard Byington

Assistant Professor of Instruction

Contact

Office:
Phone:
Email: rbyington@usf.edu

Education

Ph.D., Florida State University, 2015

Teaching

Human interaction in the Atlantic world is the foundation of my research, writing, and teaching. I consider myself a nautical or maritime historian. The Atlantic Ocean serves as a conduit for looking at the many interpersonal layers associated with the four continents that border the Atlantic Ocean. The interaction between the state and the correlating peripheral actors – or borderland studies – is a wonderful lens in which to view international, national, and regional histories. The path from mercantilism to capitalism is a methodology that I like to follow in many of my classes at USF. This socioeconomic transition from the early modern Atlantic world to the modern offers a unique and exciting way to look at the interconnectedness and often destructiveness that were integral parts in empire building, colonialism, and de-colonialism in the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Specialty Area

Florida History, Atlantic World Revolutions, the Early American Republic