Annie Gibson

My research explores how performance fosters group cohesion across cultures and geographic distances. Initially focusing on New Orleans’ Latin American community, my current work examines belonging, identity, and intercultural performance in diverse contexts, including global higher education as well as Brazilian peripheral communities.

My first book, Post-Katrina Brazucas: Brazilians in New Orleans (UNO Press, 2012), utilized literary and cultural studies, performance, dance, and ethnography to explore migration and hybrid identities. This research extended into a book chapter on Brazilian immigrant performances in Performing Brazil.

My second book, Hispanic and Latino New Orleans: Immigration and Identity since the 18th Century (co-authored, LSU Press, 2015), reflects my activism within the local Latin American community. It won the J.B. Jackson Book Prize and earned me the Cervantes Award for contributions to the Hispanic American Arts Foundation of New Orleans. This work examines the impact of Hispanic and Latino communities on New Orleans' development.

My later research examined immigrant communities in São Paulo, focusing on literary saraus (soirees) that redefine public engagement with literature, emphasizing the body as a literary component offering multisensory knowledge.

At Tulane, my administrative roles have driven my interest in interdisciplinary methodologies connecting my interest in immigration studies to student mobility and intercultural development in study abroad. This includes analyzing factors like class size, program models, immersion levels, living situations, language acquisition, and traumatic events on students’ intercultural growth.

I also work as a certified leadership and resiliency coach through the Tulane Leadership Institute, certified by the International Coaching Federation (ICF). I am a qualified administrator of the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI).