Carla Barbieri

Carla Barbieri is an Associate Professor in the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management at North Carolina State University (U.S.).

She pursued her doctoral studies at Michigan State University in Parks, Recreation & Tourism with an emphasis on tourism and rural sociology. After completing her studies, she joined the faculty of Tourism at University of Missouri as an assistant professor (2007-2012)

Barbieri’s research program aims to enhance community well-being and natural resources conservation through tourism development. Her main research line focuses on agritourism, farm enterprise diversification and rural well-being, topics that she examines using a combination of tourism and sociological approaches. She also conducts research on sustainable tourism and different types of specialized tourism, such as volunteer tourism and surf tourism.

Barbieri has conducted studies across the U.S. and in Bolivia, Canada, Ecuador, Perú and Rwanda. Her extension program addresses the needs of agritourism providers, seeking to enhance rural well-being. It specifically focuses on assisting farmers in successfully developing agritourism to respond to their needs and entrepreneurial motivations.

Her research team has published in top ranked tourism and interdisciplinary journals, has produced several extension outputs, and actively presents at national and international conferences.

Barbieri currently teaches “Sustainable Tourism” at the undergraduate level and “Advanced Theories of Leisure” at the graduate level. Her commitment to teaching has been recognized with the 2010 Outstanding Early Career Teaching Award and the 2012 Outstanding Graduate Faculty Award.