“Imagining Acadiana: Cajun Identity in Modern Louisiana”
My dissertation project is called “Imagining Acadiana: Cajun Identity in Modern Louisiana,” and explores the development of Cajun identity in Southwest Louisiana from the 1930s-1970s. I argue that during this time period, white, upwardly mobile Cajun people invested in mass culture as a way to profit from their cultural distinctiveness while also asserting their place within American culture. The development of what I call the Cajun culture industries increased the region’s social, economic, and political power while also defining the boundaries of the cultural region that came to be known as Acadiana and the collective identity of the people who lived there.
Online Publications
I have published a selection of digital humanities tool reviews for the online resource World History Commons including:
I have contributed to the professional development project Hidden in Plain Sight, a recertification course for K-12 teachers to integrate primary sources into history lessons.
I have served as Editor-at-Large for the online publication Digital Humanities Now, which compiles weekly round-ups of DH materials from across the web.
I serve as Managing Editor of New Orleans Historical, an online storytelling project that shares multimedia-rice, place-based histories with the public. I have also contributed stories and tours to the site including:
Peer-Reviewed Publications
“Hearing the Americas: Understanding the Early Recording Industry with Digital Tools,” Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era Special Issue: New Approaches to Music and Sound, Co-author with Matthew Karush and Michael O’Malley, forthcoming Fall 2023.
