NOLA: A Brief History

As you prepare for your visit to post-Katrina New Orleans, you might consider watching the following lecture "A Brief History of New Orleans", which provides an introduction to the social, cultural, and political evolution of New Orleans by historian Ned Sublette--author of The World that Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square.

ARE YOU READY TO REMEMBER KATRINA?

Your participation in Remembering Katrina: A Scholarly Immersion Experience will be like no other community-university engagement program focused on post-Katrina New Orleans. For the past five years since the socio-natural phenomenon known as Hurricane Katrina impacted the U.S. Gulf Coast, academicians, students, and community activists from around the world have interfaced with the legacy of Katrina. Their ability to work from and to sustain a mode of engagement that is community-centered, scholarly, and justice-oriented remains to be seen. Remembering Katrina aims to be that model of community-university engagement that achieves the aforementioned ideals. Towards those ends, I ask that you take time to review the "Orientation Guide for Delegates" for this one-of-a-kind scholarly immersion experience.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT IN NOLA

Remembering Katrina is about engaging the often invisible and marginalized communities of post-Katrina New Orleans. This mode of community engagement is fundamental to the delegates' goal to live, to labor, and to learn in post-Katrina New Orleans. Remembering Katrina is a scholarly immersion experience that will enable delegates to meet and to possibly volunteer with key stakeholders whose recovery efforts are aligned with each delegate's respective area of interest. The following key stakeholders represent the diversity of issues that delegates will engage with while in post-Katrina New Orleans:


COMMUNITY [Re]DEVELOPMENT & COMMUNITY-BASED ADVOCACY

Broadmoor Improvement Association (http://broadmoorimprovement.com/)

Dillard University Community Development Center, a partner of the Gentilly Civic Improvement Association (http://www.gcia.us/)

Holly Cross Neighborhood Association (http://www.helpholycross.org/)

The Louisiana Justice Institute (http://www.louisianajusticeinstitute.org/)

NENA: Lower 9th Ward Neighborhood Empowerment Network Association (http://www.9thwardnena.org/)

HOUSING ADVOCACY & LAND RIGHTS
Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center (http://www.gnofairhousing.org/)

Malcolm X Grassroots Movement-NOLA Chapter (http://mxgm.org/web/)

Rebuilding Together New Orleans (http://www.rtno.org/)

Survivors' Village (http://communitiesrising.wordpress.com/)

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE & ECO-SUSTAINABILITY

Deep South Center for Environmental Justice (http://www.dscej.org/)

Gender and Disaster Network (http://www.gdnonline.org/)

Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation (http://www.saveourlake.org/)

Louisiana Bucket Brigade (http://www.labucketbrigade.org/)

New Orleans Food & Farm Network (http://www.noffn.org/)

ACCESS TO HEALTH, FAMILY & SOCIAL SERVICES

• Early Childhood and Family Learning Foundation (http://www.childrenarewaiting.org/index.php)
• Tulane Community Health Center at Covenant House (http://www.tuchc.org/)
• UNITY of Greater New Orleans (http://unitygno.org/)
• Women's Health and Justice Initiative (http://www.whji.org/)

CRITICAL LITERACY, EDUCATIONAL JUSTICE & YOUTH EMPOWERMENT

Eastbank Collaborative of Charter Schools (http://eastbankcollaborative.com/)

Language Access Coalition (languageaccesscoalition@google.com)

Literacy Alliance of Greater NOLA (http://www.literacygno.org/)

Rethink: Kinds Rethink New Orleans Schools (http://www.therethinkers.com/)

Save Our Schools NOLA (http://www.sosnola.org/sosnola-home/)

Youth Empowerment Project (http://www.youthempowermentproject.org/)

ARTS SCENE & CULTURAL WORKERS

CANO: Creative Alliance of New Orleans (http://cano-la.org/)

Lower 9th Ward Center for the Arts (http://l9artcenter.com/)

New Orleans Video Access Center (http://novacvideo.org/)

The Porch: 7th Ward Cultural Organization (http://www.theporch-7.com/)

GLOBAL POLITICS & EMERGING IMMIGRANT COMMUNITIES in NOLA

Equity and Inclusion Campaign (http://www.equityandinclusion.org/)

LatiNola (http://latinolanow.org/)

Mary Queen of Vietnam Community Development Corporation (http://www.mqvncdc.org/)

Puentes New Orleans (http://www.puentesno.org/)

COALITION POLITICS & SOCIAL JUSTICE MOVEMENTS

INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence (http://www.incite-national.org//?s=46&m=17)

People's Institute for Survival and Beyond (http://www.pisab.org/)

Southern Poverty Law Center (http://www.splcenter.org/?ref=logo)

MEET THE DELEGATION

Ten delegates were invited by Dr. Perry to participate in the scholarly immersion experience. The delegation of faculty and faculty-support staff represents a cross-section of academic disciplines and faculty-support divisions at both Seattle University and Fairfield University. Dr. Perry targeted faculty and faculty-support staff whose teaching, scholarship, and/or service would contribute to developing a model of community-university engagement that is community-centered, scholarly, and justice-oriented.

• Dr. Elizabeth ‘Beth’ Boquet [Dean of Academic Engagement at Fairfield University] Dr. Boquet earned her Ph. D. in English from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and joined the Fairfield University faculty in 1994. Dr. Boquet was the Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences at Fairfield University. In her work as Director of the Writing Center at Fairfield University for 12 years, Dr. Boquet emphasized peer teaching and learning. She has come to be recognized as a respected expert on student-centered writing instruction and peer teaching through her scholarship, consulting, and program review work.
  [eboquet@mail.fairfield.edu]

• Dr. Jocelyn Boryczka [Assistant Professor of Politics at Fairfield University] Dr. Boryczka earned her Ph.D. in Political Science from the City University of New York. Dr. Boryczka’s areas or research and teaching include: women in politics, social movements, feminism, backlash politics, diversity issues in politics, and race, class, and gender studies. Dr. Boryczka’s has published widely and she has recently published a chapter in the book Feminist Interpretations of Alexis de Tocqueville titled: “The Separate Spheres Paradox: Habitual Inattention and Democratic Citizenship.” [jboryczka@fairfield.edu]

• Dr. Rose Ernst [Assistant Professor of Political Science at Seattle University] Dr. Ernst earned her Ph.D. in Political Science from The University of Washington. Dr. Ernst’s research and teaching interests include: American politics, Race, Gender, Class and Sexuality, Policy Processes, Urban Politics and Social Movements. Dr. Ernst recently published her article titled “Working Expectations: Frame Diagnosis and the Welfare Rights Movement” in the journal Social Movement Studies. Currently, Dr. Ernst is working on completing a book about colorblindness in the contemporary welfare rights movement in the United States. [ernst@seattleu.edu]

• Dr. Mako Fitts [Assistant Professor of Sociology & Interim Director for Faculty Engagement with the Center for Service and Community Engagement at Seattle University] Dr. Fitts earned her Ph.D. in Justice Studies from Arizona State University. Dr. Fitts’s areas of research and teaching include: feminist theory and praxis, hip-hop studies, urban sociology, and race, class, gender, and sexuality studies. In 2010, Dr. Fitts was appointed by the Provost to serve as the Interim Director for Faculty Engagement with the Center for Service and Community Engagement at Seattle University. Dr. Fitts has published in various academic and public venues and she has recently published a chapter in the book The Intersectional Approach titled: “Institutionalizing Intersectionality: Reflections on the Structure of Women’s Studies Departments and Programs.” [fittsm@seattleu.edu]

• Ms. Gina Lopardo, M.S. [Assistant Director with the Office of Education Abroad at Seattle University] Ms. Lopardo earned her Master of Science in College Student Personnel from the University of Rhode Island. Ms. Lopardo works together with faculty directors and Associate Deans on education abroad courses (short-term, faculty-led, usually summer). 2009-2010 marks Ms. Lopardo’s 11th year in international education and her 3rd year at Seattle University. [glopardo@seattleu.edu]

• Dr. Tayyab Mahmud [Professor of Law and Director of Global Justice at Seattle University] Dr. Mahmud earned his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Hawaii-Honolulu and his J.D. from the University of California, Hasting College of Law. Dr. Mahmud has published extensively in the areas of comparative constitutional law, human rights, international law, legal history and legal theory. His primary research areas are critical legal theory, colonial legal regimes, international law, and post-colonial legal systems. His current research is focused on extra-constitutional usurpation and exercise of power in post-colonial states. Dr. Mahmud recently had his article “Colonial Cartographies and Postcolonial Borders: The Unending War in and around Afghanistan” accepted for publication. [mahmud@seattleu.edu]

• Dr. Quinton Morris [Assistant Professor & Director of Chamber & Instrumental Music at Seattle U] Dr. Morris earned his Doctor of Music Arts at The University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Morris enjoys a multifaceted career as a concert violinist, chamber musician, teacher, director and founder of The Young Eight String Octet. Dr. Morris has performed solo and chamber music performances in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East and has won numerous awards including The Boston Conservatory Chamber Music Honors Competition, the Louisiana Junior Philharmonic Orchestra Young Artist’s Concerto Competition, Seattle Philharmonic Concerto Competition, the NAACP ACT-SO Competition, the North Carolina Federation of Music Clubs String Competition and the Ebony Showcase Music Award. Dr. Morris will be making his debut as a soloist at Carnegie Hall in New York City on January 15, 2011. [morrisq@seattleu.edu]

• Dr. Renée White [Professor of Sociology & Director of Black Studies at Fairfield University] Dr. White earned her Ph.D. in Sociology from Yale University. Dr. White has just been appointed Fairfield University's first Academic Coordinator for Diversity and Global Citizenship. Professor White's areas of research include HIV/AIDS, reproductive health, health policy, race theory, and social inequality. She is currently conducting research on the tensions between the assertions of post-racial ideology in the United States and the upsurge of racialized language and imagery. Dr. White is author of Putting Risk in Perspective: Black Teenage Lives in the Era of AIDS (Rowman &Littlefield, 1999), and she is also the editor of the Journal of HIV/AIDS Prevention in Children & Youth (Taylor & Francis Press). Dr. White has recently co-edited HIV/AIDS: Global Frontiers in Prevention/Intervention (Routledge, 2009). [rtwhite@fairfield.edu]

• Mr. Lonnie Renteria, M.A. [Documentary Filmmaker and Faculty at the Art Institute of Seattle] Mr. Renteria earned his M.A. in French from Portland State University. Mr. Renteria’s areas of expertise include Modern Languages, French-Canadian Drama, Performance and Film. Mr. Renteria is the founder of Torelore Productions and has produced two documentaries. Ebony Chunky Love (http://www.torelore.com/), which premiered at the Seattle Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in 2007 and was awarded the Best Film – for its category – at the San Diego Black Film Festival in 2009. The film can also be seen on the LOGO Network. Mr. Renteria has also produced What’s Rights with Gays these Days (www.torelore.com/gctv), which was commissioned by Three Dollar Bill, Gay City, and King County Public Health. September 2009 marked the launch of Cine Seattle: The Seattle International Latino Film Festival [http://www.cineseattle.org/], which Mr. Renteria co-founded. [lonnietr@torelore.com]

• Dr. Gary Perry [Assistant Professor of Sociology & Faculty Coordinator for Remembering Katrina© at Seattle University] Dr. Perry earned his Ph.D. in Sociology from The University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Dr. Perry’s interests include: urban sociology, participatory action research, race, class, gender, and sexuality studies, social movements, and post-Katrina New Orleans. Dr. Perry has published in the areas of anti-racist education, intersectionality, and post-Katrina New Orleans. Dr. Perry developed Remembering Katrina© in 2010 to allow a multidisciplinary delegation of faculty and staff from Seattle University and Fairfield University to partner with Loyola University of New Orleans in order to devise sustainable, community-centered, scholarly, and justice-oriented models of community-university engagement between their home institutions and the recovery efforts in post-Katrina New Orleans. (perryg@seattleu.edu)

OUR GOALS & OBJECTIVES

Remembering Katrina allows the delegation of faculty and staff to engage with the recovery efforts in post-Katrina New Orleans while enriching or extending the delegates' scholarship, their pedagogy, and their actualization of social justice. The delegation will work to develop a model of community-university engagement that is community-centered, scholarly, and justice-oriented. The faculty and staff who take part in this scholarly immersion experience will:

• Examine how Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath has impacted New Orleans society and culture;
• Engage with a cross-section of populations in post-Katrina New Orleans through local immersion experiences;
• Embody the everyday struggles of Hurricane Katrina survivors;
• Develop partnerships with an agency or academic entity — in New Orleans — that is within the faculty and professional staff member’s respective field of scholarly/creative interest or professional expertise;
• Learn how survivors of Hurricane Katrina are rebuilding their city, their culture, and their lives;
• Learn about global justice movements that have emerged in post-Katrina New Orleans; and
• Work to sustain partnerships between their home institutions and the the movements for justice in post-Katrina New Orleans through faculty scholarship, teaching, and service.

WELCOME

In 2010, Dr. Gary K. Perry (Assistant Professor of Sociology at Seattle University) developed Remembering Katrina, a pilot scholarly immersion experience that allows a delegation of college faculty and professional staff to live, to labor, and to learn in post-Katrina New Orleans. From July 25 to August 2, 2010, this delegation will explore ways that Seattle University, in partnership with Fairfield University and Loyola University of New Orleans, can increase its engagement with the recovery efforts in the U.S. Gulf Coast. Remembering Katrina originates from what Dr. Perry observed as a deficit of opportunities for critical scholars to participate in academically-rigorous, community-centered, justice-oriented, and outcome-driven initiatives to rebuild post-Katrina New Orleans. This blog serves as an online community for these delegates to acquire and to share information about their scholarly immersion experience in post-Katrina New Orleans. Subscribe to this blog in order to follow and learn from the experiences of the delegates.