People

Heather O'Leary

Associate Professor

Contact

Office: Davis 239
St. Petersburg Campus, Davis Hall
(SW stairwell through Reception 287 doors)
Phone: 727-873-4156
Email

Bio

An award-winning transdisciplinary scholar of the human dimensions of water, Dr. Heather O'Leary leads multiple science communication and diplomacy initiatives demonstrating the vital contributions communities make to transnational water policy and science. As an Associate Professor of Anthropology, her research interests trace the ways water impacts the most pressing concerns of our century - from extractive development; to informal labor and human migration; to challenges to human and environmental health; to building crucial data literacy goals in the face of disinformation and science skepticism; to creating just environmental policy models for all.
O鈥橪eary鈥檚 current science literacy projects include: analyzing misinformation around chemicals of emerging concern along American coasts; comparative projects on cultural values of contamination in coastal and riparian India; epistemic erasure and selective citation in environmental sciences; expanding public hydroliteracy through data-driven sonification (CRESCENDO); and projects for the interdisciplinary 小黄鸭视频 Oceans of Data Think Tank which she jointly leads.
Together, these projects trace water knowledge across each of its steps鈥攆rom physical source to scientific interpretation, public consumption, and policy鈥攊n non-linear and overlapping complexities.  Her portfolio outlines the challenges sciences face to making our waters secure and sustainable for today's needs and tomorrow's generations.
Dr. O'Leary has served as a 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); Scientific Commission for Anthropology and Environment (CAE)) creating intergenerational, North-South learning communities among members to foster bi-directional mutual understanding.

education

  • M.A., University of Chicago
  • Ph.D., University of Minnesota

Additional Roles

Teaching

Undergraduate courses in anthropology and interdisciplinary social sciences, including courses on gender in the cross-cultural perspective, environmental movements methodologies and a senior capstone course. She directs CRESCENDO, where interdisciplinary colleagues join O'Leay's graduate and undergraduate students to analyze the changing representations of environmental justice in popular culture and rigorous scholarly works.

Awards

  • Fulbright
  • Wenner-Gren
  • NOAA-GCOOS
  • Case Studies in the Environment Best Article Award
  • The Burge and Field Outstanding Article Award 鈥渇or innovative and meaningful contributions and great promise to be influential over time鈥�
  • Kate Browne Creativity in Research Award (2025)

Publications

  • 2024: O鈥橪eary, H., Kramer, M., Shuff, H., Howard, S. 鈥淰isual Tropes in the Restoration Logics of Coral Reefs: Global Restoration Organizations鈥� Shared Imagery鈥� Environment and Society. Abstract Accepted for SI on Restoration; 2024, v15. With student co-authors. Under revision following revise and resubmit.
  • 2024: O鈥橪eary, H. 鈥淚nsecure Toilets, Secure Women: Examining the Museology of Sanitation Justice at Sulabh International Toilet Museum in Delhi, India鈥� Indian Anthropologist.

  • 2024: O鈥橪eary, H., Gantzert, T, Mann, A., Mann, E., Bollineni, N., Nelson, M. 鈥淐itation as Representation: Gendered Academic Citation Politics Persist in Environmental Studies Publications鈥� Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences Accepted for SI on Diversity; 2024. With student co-authors.

  • 2024: O鈥橪eary, H., Alvarez, S., Bahja, F. 鈥淲hat鈥檚 in a Name?: Political and Economic Concepts Differ in Social Media References to Harmful Algae Blooms鈥� Journal of Environmental Management 357 (2024): 120799. With student co-author.

  • 2024: Alvarez, S., Brown, C.E., Garcia, M., O鈥橪eary, H., Sol铆s, D. 鈥淣on-linear impacts of harmful algae blooms on the coastal tourism economy." Journal of Environmental Management 351 (2024): 119811.

    • First Prize: SECSA-CHRIE Most Innovative Thought-Provoking Research Award
  • 2023: O鈥橪eary, H., Smiles, D., El Sayed, M., & Parr, S. 鈥溾�業 Can鈥檛 Breathe:鈥� The Invisible Slow Violence of Breathing Politics in Minneapolis before Floyd鈥� Special Issue on Air Quality of Society and Natural Resources.
  • 2023: Coleman, L. & O鈥橪eary, H. "Right Under Our Noses: GIS Exploration of Covid-19 and Air Quality." In The Science Teacher. 2023; 90(3). With student co-author.

  • 2022: Hagen, L., Fox, A., O鈥橪eary, H., Walker, K., Hernandez, R.G., & Lengacher, C. "The Role of Influential Actors in Fostering the Polarized COVID-19 Vaccine Discourse on Twitter: Mixed Methods of Machine Learning and Inductive Coding " In Journal of Medical Internet Research: Infodemiology. 2022;2(1):e34231.

  • 2022: O鈥橪eary, H., El Sayed, M., & Parr, S.. "The Breathing Human Infrastructure: Integrating Air Quality, Traffic, and Social Media Indicators" In Science of the Total Environment, p154209.
  • 2021: Hernandez, R.G., Hagen, L., Walker, K., O鈥橪eary, H., & Lengacher, C., (2021), The SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Social Media Infodemic: Healthcare Providers' Missed Dose in Addressing Misinformation and Vaccine Hesitancy In Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics, 17 (11).

  • O鈥橪eary, H. Washing Delhi: Conduits of Purity and Reproducing Class in a Developing Waterscape. Monograph Manuscript. University of Arizona Press. Under Revision after external peer review. 

  •  2019: 鈥淐onspicuous reserves: Ideologies of water consumption and the performance of class鈥� In Economic Anthropology, 鈥淲ater and Economy鈥� 6: 195鈥�207.
  • 2018: 鈥淧luralizing Science for Inclusive Water Governance: An engaged ethnographic approach to WaSH data collection in Delhi, India鈥� In Case Studies in the Environment.
    • First Prize: Case Studies in the Environment Best Article Award
  • 2017: 鈥淓pistemological Undercurrents: Delhi鈥檚 Water Crisis and the Role of the Urban Water Poor鈥� In Water, Knowledge and the Environment in Asia: Epistemologies, practices and locales, Ravi Baghel, Lea Stepan, Joseph    K.W. Hill (eds.).  Routledge Earthscan series.
  • 2016: 鈥淏etween stagnancy and affluence: Reinterpreting water poverty and domestic flows in Delhi, India.鈥� Society & Natural Resources, 29 (6), 639-653.
  • 2015: (with lead author, Dustin Garrick) 鈥淐hapter 4: Pathways to Water Security鈥� Securing Water, Sustaining Growth: Report of the GWP/OECD Task Force on Water Security and Sustainable Growth, Claudia Sadoff (ed.). 114-169. University of Oxford.
  • 2015: 鈥淧roducing Middle-Class Waterscapes Beyond Middle-Class Thresholds: Domestic Workers and Identity Expression through Water Allocation in Lower-Class Delhi, India鈥� In Averting a Global Environmental Collapse: The Role of Anthropology and Local Knowledge, Thomas Reuter (ed.); Cambridge Scholar Series.