Dr. Annabelle Hicks, College and Career Success Program Manager

Dr. Annabelle Hicks holds a PhD and MA from the University of Connecticut, where she also earned Graduate Certificates in College Instruction and in Digital Humanities & Media Studies. She has completed the Associate, Practitioner, and Scholar levels with the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL). With over a decade of teaching experience—six years in private boarding schools and five at the university level—Annabelle is deeply committed to student-centered learning and inclusive pedagogy.

Annabelle’s scholarship focuses on festival studies, cultural resilience, and innovative approaches to teaching and learning. She contributed to Keeping Us Engaged (Christine Harrington, ed., 2025) and has two forthcoming publications: her doctoral monograph, Festivals and Identity: A Comparative Study of Cultural Resilience in Wales, Brittany, and Nova Scotia (2025), and the article “(In)Security in Academia and Pedagogy: Navigating Challenges and Transformative Practices,” which will appear in the 2026 special issue of the South Atlantic Review.
Annabelle began her role as College and Career Success Program Manager at Sun Scholars Inc. in May 2025. This September, she will also join the faculty at Connecticut College as an adjunct professor, balancing both roles in support of youth empowerment and higher education.

Annabelle lives in Connecticut, with her fiancé, Russell, and their three dogs—Heidi, Leo, and Coda.