Anita Gonzalez (Ph.D.) is a professor of performing arts and Black Studies at Georgetown University and a co-founder of their Racial Justice Institute. She was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2023. She’s written Shipping Out: Race, Performance and Labor at Sea, Performance, Dance and Political Economy, Black Performance Theory, Afro-Mexico: Dancing Between Myth and Reality, and Jarocho’s Soul. Her essays appear in several edited collections and journals. Gonzalez created the open online courses “Storytelling for Social Change” and “Black Performance as Social Protest.” She completed three Senior Scholar Fulbright grants and been a resident artist/scholar in Italy and Texas. She was a Humanities Center Fellow at the University of Michigan and is a recent recipient of the Shirley Verrett Award for outstanding teaching of performance.

Gonzalez’s innovative stagings of historical and cross-cultural experiences have appeared on PBS national television and at Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, The Working Theatre, and other national and international venues. Gonzalez’s librettos have been produced by Washington National Opera (Mikey Dee and the Eclipse, 2026), Atlanta Opera (Faces in the Flames, 2023) and Boston Opera Collaborative (Courthouse Bells, 2023). Other musical writings include Zora on My Mind. Gonzalez is a Fellow in the American Opera Project's Composers and the Voice program, a member of the National Theatre Conference, Lincoln Center Director’s Lab, and the Dramatists Guild.