What is New Orleans?

Answers to that question were in plentiful supply at the Center for the Study of New Orleans’ second event Wednesday, Oct. 21, at Loyola University New Orleans’ Nunemaker Auditorium.

Playwright and Loyola English professor John Biguenet moderated the event, which included presentations from a panel of three New Orleans observers from various fields, followed by a provocative question and answer session.

New York Times reporter and New Orleans native Susan Saulny, tried to answer the question by chronicling her family’s heartache and displacement following Katrina and their quest to “be New Orleanians wherever they are.” Quoting Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, Louis Armstrong and others with strong opinions of the city, Saulny likened her family’s expatriate affection for New Orleans to Hemingway’s quote about Paris.  

“ ‘If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man,” Saulny quoted Hemingway, “then wherever you go for the rest of your life it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.’ …

“Well, like Paris to Hemingway, to my family New Orleans is a ‘moveable feast’.” She spoke of displaced relatives making gumbo and throwing Mardi Gras parties across the country.

Larry Powell, a Tulane University history professor, highlighted New Orleans’ importance since its founding as a commercial, cultural touchstone in the history of the United States. Without New Orleans, Powell said, there could not have been “Plessy versus Ferguson.”

Richard Campanella, Tulane University geographer, gave a fascinating presentation “Trends, Patterns, and Precedents: New Orleans in the 21st Century,” which explained the population density and shifts from the earliest New Orleans settlements to present day.
“It was a wonderful event that gave us all so much to think about. The different perspectives brought by the all of the panelists and the moderator made this a particularly compelling progam,” center director and Loyola faculty member Dr. Leslie Parr said. “It is wonderful that the community is responding so enthusiastically to our center’s events.”

The CSNO, housed in the College of Social Sciences is a cross-disciplinary resource hub that promotes research and reflection on the history, politics, culture and environment of New Orleans.
 

Future CSNO events include:
•    “New Orleans in the '60s: A Time of Change,” a panel discussion on the turbulent era of segregation, integration and emerging identity groups, featuring Alecia Long, a history professor at Louisiana State University and author of “The Great Southern Babylon: Sex, Race, and Respectability in New Orleans, 1865-1920;” Rafael Cassimere, University of New Orleans history professor, emeritus; and Kent Germany, associate professor of history and African-American studies at the University of South Carolina. Loyola sociology professor Anthony Ladd will moderate. Jan. 20, 7 p.m., Nunemaker Auditorium.

•    “Taken Against Their Will: Kidnappers, Detectives and Slaves,” a discussion led by historians Mike Ross, University of Maryland, and Adam Rothman, Georgetown University, who will weave a tale of intrigue as they discuss two infamous 19th century Louisiana kidnapping cases. Loyola history professor Mark Fernandez will moderate. March 23, 7:30 p.m., Nunemaker Auditorium.

There is free parking on Loyola’s campus during these events. For more information, call the center at 504-865-3431 or go to www.loyno.edu/studyneworleans. For more information on the College of Social Sciences, contact Catherine Koppel in the Office of Public Affairs at 504-861-5448 or ckoppel@loyno.edu.