Gigi Adams, Ph.D.
Cultural Strategist
History Repeats itself
Sure, we live in a new era of cutting edge technology. But some things stay the same, like our human desire for connection.
My academic research focuses on the emotional belonging that popular culture and new media foster, in both the 18th- and 21st-centuries.
Strategic Storytelling
Algorithms can only tell us so much. I fill in the rest to help you create relationships. If you don’t want to be just a number, why should your clients be one?
Blending my expertise in client management and social narrative, I offer guidance on:
decoding cultural landscapes
trend forecasting
brand identity & narrative strategy
identifying influencer collaborations
developing audience demographics
My doctoral dissertation mapped 18th-century British romance literature as a modern pop culture phenomenon to understand how the emotional connections between author, reader, and romance literature evolved.
My master’s thesis decoded the emotional pull of depressive feminist memes that trended in the late 2010s. I interviewed meme creators and consumers for this project, and I published a version of my research in Feminist Media Studies.
An international, interdisciplinary academic journal with 907K annual downloads/views, Feminist Media Studies is where leading feminist media scholars from Rosalind Gill to Akane Kanai have published seminal work.
Since publishing in Feminist Media Studies, I have served as a peer reviewer. As social media field expert for the journal, I review submissions from other scholars on topics like TikTok wellness trends. In addition to making editorial and research suggestions, I help decide on the publication of articles.
know your audience
A seasoned facilitator and presenter, I’ve convinced 18th-century scholars that memes are a useful lens for reading satirical poetry.
Prior to academia, I worked in viral content for Someecards and Pixable, two now-defunct comedic websites. At Someecards, I hit ~8 million monthly views. At Pixable, I reached ~15 million total views.
Sell a story
My presentation and client relations skills are informed by my teaching work. I taught undergraduates at Vanderbilt, where I also studied pedagogy (the theory of teaching) in multiple departments and obtained a Certificate in College Teaching.
As Sales Associate at Guest in Residence (a luxury, celebrity-owned fashion brand), I continue to hone my client relations skills through working with clients ranging from stylists to celebrities.