I Was Paying Attention
This sociological term describes the lifelong process through which individuals learn and internalize the values, beliefs, and norms of their culture.
What is socialization?
This well-intentioned mindset often manifests when outsiders enter a community with the assumption that they alone possess the solutions, rather than working with community members as equals.
What is saviorism (or white savior complex)?
This informal, campus term describes the tendency for students to stay within the geographical and social boundaries of Tulane’s campus, rarely venturing into the broader New Orleans community.
What is "The Tulane Bubble"?
Set in New Orleans, this iconic 2009 Disney film features Tiana, Disney's first African American princess, and showcases French Quarter architecture, jazz music, and beignets.
What is The Princess and the Frog?
In New Orleans culture, this Creole French term means "a little something extra" given gratuitously to a customer.
What is lagniappe?
Coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw, this framework examines how overlapping social identities (such as race, gender, and class) intersect to create interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.
What is intersectionality?
In community-engaged learning, local residents and grassroots leaders are often recognized not just as subjects of study, but by this title, acknowledging their expertise.
Who are co-educators (or community experts)?
Tulane University sits on the historic homeland of Indigenous peoples, including these nations who inhabited the lower Mississippi River region long before European colonization.
Who are the Chitimacha, Choctaw, Houma, or Tunica-Biloxi nations?
This New Orleans hip-hop icon and Queen of Bounce—who featured at 2026 commUNITY on campus—gained massive global media attention after featured vocals on Drake’s hit song "Nice for What."
Who is Big Freedia?
These historic neighborhood social organizations keep New Orleans street culture alive through community parades featuring elaborate, hand-sewn feathered suits.
Who are the Mardi Gras Indians (or Black Masking Culture)?
This refers to the degree to which a particular social identity is emphasized or meaningful to a person in a specific context.
What is identity salience?
This foundational communication practice requires withholding judgment, listening to understand rather than to reply, and paying attention to both verbal and non-verbal cues.
What is active listening?
When well-funded institutions buy property or expand facilities into surrounding working-class neighborhoods, driving up property values and displacing long-time residents, it is known as this phenomenon.
What is gentrification (or institutional expansion/displacement)?
Shot largely around New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish, this hit 2012 musical comedy starring Anna Kendrick features a college A Cappella group competing at regional and national championships.
What is Pitch Perfect?
Historically, this famous public square in New Orleans was a gathering ground where enslaved and free people of color gathered on Sundays to practice drumming, dancing, and commerce.
What is Congo Square?
Peggy McIntosh famously described this phenomenon as an invisible, unearned knapsack of advantages that some groups carry simply due to their social identity.
What is [white] privilege (or social privilege)?
In critical community engagement, shifting the guiding question from "What can we do for them?" to this question is essential for building equitable partnerships.
What is "What can we do with them?" (or "What are the community's self-defined needs and assets?")?
In critical community engagement, this model contrasts an "Asset-Based" approach by focusing solely on a neighborhood's problems, poverty, and needs rather than its existing strengths.
What is the Deficit-Based model?
Filmed extensively in Louisiana, this long-running FX horror anthology series dedicated its third season, titled Coven, to a academy for young witches in the French Quarter.
What is American Horror Story?
The distinct neighborhood divisions in New Orleans—known locally as "uptown" and "downtown"—were historically separated by this famous grand avenue, which runs from the river to the lake.
What is Canal Street?
This concept highlights how an individual's subjective sense of self is shaped by their membership in various social groups, influencing how they perceive both ingroups and outgroups.
What is social identity theory?
This continuous practice involves critical self-reflection on one's own positionality and power imbalances, moving away from arrogance and toward lifelong learning in community partnerships.
What is cultural humility?
Passing Orleans Parish’s mandatory service-learning requirement differs from meaningful engagement when students treat community work as merely this—a box to check for course credit rather than a reciprocal relationship.
What is transactional service (or transactional engagement)?
Adapted from Anne Rice’s gothic novels set in New Orleans, this hit AMC television series—filmed locally in 2022 and 2023—reimagines the complex dynamic between vampires Louis de Pointe du Lac and Lestat de Lioncourt in the French Quarter.
What is Interview with the Vampire?
Established in the late 19th century as mutual aid and benevolent associations to support Black residents with healthcare, burial costs, and community care, these neighborhood institutions remain central to New Orleans culture today, famously organizing Sunday street parades.
What are Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs (SAPCs)?