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).

Eric Johns joined the Stone Center in 2023 as Archivist & Curator for the Centennial Project, overseeing the discovery and preservation of historic documents pertaining to the Center’s history. As a part of the Center’s centennial celebration in 2024, he is engaged in curating and preparing critical archival materials for an innovative digital humanities project, providing researchers with access to materials and telling engaging stories about the Center’s history through data visualization projects. Prior to joining Tulane, Eric was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Riverside’s XCITE center. His research interests include musicology, critical historiography, nationalism, critical race studies, and embodied pedagogy.