About

Liz Kicak completed her M.F.A. in creative writing at USF in 2011 and immediately joined the staff of the USF Humanities Institute. She was named the Director in 2016. In addition to her work at HI, Liz teaches creative writing and literature courses in the Department of English. She continues to write and publish her own poetry and has a special interest in the intersection of visual art and poetics (called ekphrastic poetry). Sharing her love of the humanities with students and encouraging them on their academic journeys is her favorite aspect of working at USF.

An award-winning transdisciplinary scholar of the human dimensions of water, Dr. Heather O'Leary leads multiple initiatives demonstrating the vital contributions that local communities and humanistic data can make to impact transnational water policy, science, and technology. An Associate Professor of Anthropology and champion of Public Humanities, her research focuses on both physical and cultural benchmarks of water contamination, epistemic erasure, hydro-literacy, and embodiment.  Her expertise spans 20 years of ethnographic fieldwork in riparian India and coastal America, bridging Blue Humanities with social, physical, and marine sciences to underscore the value of deep readings, oral histories, storytelling, and artistic expression.  Dr. O'Leary has served as a water anthropology specialist with the OECD, Global Water Partnership, International Science Council, and in leadership positions on the multiple international anthropological boards (World Anthropological Union (WAU); International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences (IUAES). 

Jade graduated from USF in 2019 with her B.A. in Humanities & Cultural Studies. She also completed a minor in Leadership Studies and a General Business Certificate. Jade interned at the Humanities Institute during her final semester at USF and stayed with the Institute after graduating. If she is not in the office, you can likely find her outside watching the ducks and squirrels on campus.

"I am a Professor in the Department of World Languages, where I teach courses on medieval and Renaissance Spain, as well as Early Spanish Florida. I am originally from Oviedo (Spain), but I have lived and worked in the US for the past 25 years. For my tenure as DeBartolo Chair, I will be working on three medieval manuscripts which contain an unknown version of the Lives of the Desert Fathers, a collection of sayings, anecdotes, and maxims attributed to the early Christian ascetics of fourth- and fifth-century Egypt. I am truly excited about this project, as it combines different passions of mine: manuscripts, paleography, ancient and medieval history, and religious studies. As part of the DeBartolo Endowment, I am also hoping to organize a conference on Early Florida History and Literature."