I relish the fact that I'm no longer a Katrina refugee and have found a new home in Who Dat! nation. I'm an alumna of Emory University's Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts, and, as you've probably surmised, a New Orleans native. I'm an assistant professor of American Studies at UMass Boston, and my research interests include constructions of race, ethnicity, and nationality; New Orleans history and culture; and African American popular culture. My book project analyzes the development of cultural heritage tourism in New Orleans in the years preceding and following Hurricane Katrina during the post-Civil Rights period with its marked tension between the tropes of black desire (appropriation of black cultural contributions) and black disaster (associations of blackness with danger, poverty, corruption).

Location

Boston, MA

Disciplines

• African American Studies
• American Studies
• History
• Literature
• Cultural Studies and Ethnic Studies
• Urban Studies

Affiliation

UMass Boston