People

Elizabeth Bird, Director 
ebird@usf.edu
Website
813-974-0802
Office Number: CPR 474D
Mailing Address:
4202 E. Fowler Ave.
Tampa, FL 33620
CPR 107

Upon joining the organization in Fall, 2011, Dr. Elizabeth Bird became the third director of the Institute. Dr. Bird holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Strathclyde (UK), and her research focuses on practices around the media in everyday life, with particular interests in the role of news and journalism in framing cultural issues, and the relationship of media texts and audience practices. Recent projects include student response to the use of visuals in the classroom; museums as popular culture; the relationship of public art with community identity; and the role of oral histories in preserving cultural heritage.

Her most current research uses videotaped oral histories and survivor testimonies to document a little-known massacre of civilians that happened in 1967 during the Nigerian civil war. Her team hopes to reclaim the history of the event, and use this both to explore the working of collective memory and to assist the community in developing public memorialization. For more information about the project, visit www.asabamemorial.org.

Liz Kicak, Assistant Director
ekicak@usf.edu
813-974-3657
Office Number: CPR 474C
Mailing Address:
4202 E. Fowler Ave.
Tampa, FL 33620
CPR 107

Liz joined the Humanities Institute in the 2010 after completing her M.F.A. in Creative Writing from USF. Her primary focus is poetry and her work has appeared in New York Quarterly, Boston Literary Magazine, Southern Women's Review, Palooka Literary Review, and others.