Research
EcoFem Lab
DIRECTOR
Heather O'Leary
Assistant Professor
Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, Anthropology
ABOUT
The EcoFem Lab is an interdisciplinary think-tank at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg that explores the hidden connections between environmentalist and feminist ways of understanding the world’s most pressing problems. Researchers document cultural evidence of our assumptions about nature and gender to analyze how these assumptions undermine, reinforce, and reshape environmental justice and gender equity. The EcoFem Lab’s research argues that these cultural insights can be applied to increase representational justice in everyday life, in activism, and in the academy.
CORE RESEARCH THEMES
- Epistemic violence (limiting the ways people know and understand gendered and environmental issues)
- Gendered and Environmental labor, extractivist economics
- Global climate and development hotspots: political ecologies of coasts, cities, and global south contexts
- Representational justice in the academy, activism, popular culture, and social media
- Feminist Co-Mentoring
Media & Press
- Local professor helps U.N. create ‘milestone’ water plan
- Anthropology professor will join push for more sustainable, comprehensive water policies at U.N. Water Conference
- UN Water Conference Series: Bridging the gap between research and application of science-based solutions to tackle global water goals
- From Bloom to Bust: Harmful Algae Blooms and Their Impacts on the Waterfront Economy
from Rosen Research Review, Summer 2021 - Health Care Professionals Need to Combat COVID-19 Vaccine Misinformation, Researchers Say
- Professors receive Faculty Excellence Award for research and creative efforts focused on women
- More people are less hesitant about COVID vaccine, but demand still down in some spots
- Anthropology Professor to Speak at U.N. Commission on the Status of Women
- Researchers partner with local high schoolers to study the effects of COVID-19 on air quality
- Anthropology Professor Participating in Study to Uncover the True Cost of Florida’s Red Tide
- Anthropology Professor Wins Top Prize from Environmental Journal
- Navigating social media is part of the job for elected officials
- USF, Johns Hopkins All Children’s investigate why people might say no to a Covid vaccine
Current student researchers
Latesia Coleman
Holly Shuff
Abby Vidmar
Giulio Aleppo
Julie Beach
Darby Blekicki
Bethany Brittingham
Shelby Edmeads
Taylor Gantzert
Melissa Greene
Olivia Hanson
Aditi Patel
Ruben Robles
Ashley Schipae
Samantha Silva Arroyo
Isabella Sutherland
Bekah Vigil
Christine Wood