Fiero Makes Mark With Humanities Program

Dr. Gloria Fiero

Dr. Gloria Fiero, a USL history professor, has had a career that any educator would be proud of.

She loves teaching. She has written a respected textbook, received the Distinguished Professor Award and has traveled abroad often to lecture and conduct research.

But as she looks back over her career, she is perhaps most proud of her role in helping to establish USL’s Interdisciplinary Humanities Program in 1972. The program blossomed from 1976 to 1979 with the help of a grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities.

“It’s the strongest interdisciplinary program in the South, in our region,” Fiero said.

Today, students at USL can take a variety of classes to study human ideas and values.

That’s in part due to a group that Fiero helped create, The Friends of the Humanities. The organization began when a group of women who attended humanities classes saw the program’s needs and decided to help.

So, the women began to raise money. With those funds, they purchased slides and paid for out-of-town speakers, for instance. They have also given moral support to the faculty.

“I’m delighted we have a group of people in this region with the interest and the intellectual enthusiasm to do what these individuals are doing,” Fiero said.

The professor is also pleased with her role in assisting the “USL in France” program get established. In that program, USL students travel to France for a summer to take classes and learn the language and culture.

The 1995 spring semester is Fiero’s last as a USL professor. She’s retiring after teaching for 27 years.

“I just need more time for my own projects,” she explained. For instance, this summer she will be working on the third edition of her book, “The Humanistic Tradition.” It was the first humanities textbook in the field that is global in scope.

Fiero will also work on a two-volume guide for students, which will be the only study guide for a humanities program in the nation.

But she leaves the classroom with a little reluctance.

“I loved teaching. I adored teaching...I think I’m going to miss it terribly,” she said.

FACULTY PROFILE