Sustaining New Orleans: Urban Communities, Cultures, and Environments

With the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe as a backdrop, New Orleans in 2008 faces a series of dilemmas involving complex environmental, cultural, geographical, economic, and social issues. How it negotiates these problems and exploits its advantages will determine the long-term sustainability of this fascinating American city. This course will provide students with an opportunity to explore those dilemmas thoroughly through lectures, discussions, panel presentations, readings, films, and field trips. Among topics covered will be:

• the geological formation and environmental deterioration of coastal Louisiana
• how the city of New Orleans formed and developed at this site;
• how the city's culture emerged from European, African, Caribbean, Creole, and American source regions;
• the roles of race, class, religion, education, economics, and politics before and after the storm;
• the roles of cultural practices and institutions in the city, from elite performance venues to Mardi Gras and Second Line traditions;
• how and why Katrina happened, and what has happened in the three years hence;
• solutions for the long-term environmental, economic, and cultural sustainability of the city;
• fostering the Creative Class and the cultural economy of the city;
• comparative analyses to other troubled American cities, and other American problems.

Students should be prepared for reading and writing assignments commensurate with a typical university-level three-credit class.

Professors:

Richard Campanella, MS, Research Professor, Earth and Environmental Sciences; Assistant Director, Center for Bioenvironmental Research
Geographer Richard Campanella is the assistant director of the Center for Bioenvironmental Research and a research professor with the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. His work at Tulane entails the application of mapping sciences to a wide range of disciplines in the physical, biological, and social sciences. Campanella is the author of three books about the historical geography of New Orleans, including the award-winning Time and Place in New Orleans: Past Geographies in the Present Day (2002) and Geographies of New Orleans: Urban Fabrics Before the Storm (2006). Campanella, a former Peace Corps Volunteer in Central America and a wilderness ranger in the Rocky Mountains, worked previously as a senior scientist at Stennis Space Center, Mississippi, where he conducted research in applications of satellite remote sensing.

Amy Koritz, Ph. D, Associate Professor, English
Amy Koritz is Associate Professor of English at Tulane University. Her scholarship has addressed topics in performance studies, urban studies, community cultural development, and the role of the humanities in higher education and the public sphere. Her first book, Gendering Bodies/Performing Art (U Michigan P 1995) focuses on dance and literature in late 19th and early 20th century British culture. Her new book, Culture Makers: Urban Performance and Literature in the 1920s, is forthcoming from the University of Illinois Press. Since 1998 she has been developing programs and courses for undergraduates that connect the humanities to the community beyond the university. She serves as Tulane University’s representative to Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life and has written about civic engagement in the humanities in Diversity Digest and the Modern Language Association’s Profession. She is co-editing a volume of essays with George Sanchez on civic engagement in the arts and humanities after Hurricane Katrina. As Associate Director for Community and Culture at the Tulane/Xavier Center for Bioenvironmental Research she has been developing projects and partnerships that integrate the arts and culture into efforts to build and strengthen sustainable communities. With colleagues at Dillard and Xavier Universities she developed and co-teaches a course on Rebuilding Community through the Arts. This course is integrated with the four neighborhood-based community arts projects that constitute HOME, New Orleans, an innovative partnership among universities, artists, and community organizations.

Course Requirements
Students will receive course credit by :

• Attending a 3 hour seminar every Friday
• Attending a panel discussion every Tuesday
• Participating in a class field trip to further explore the culture and geography of southern Louisiana

Internship Requirement
Students will receive credit for their internship work by:

• Completing 24 hours of service per week
• Attending a weekly advisory dinner
• Completing a group project for their internship site

The weekly advisory dinner will allow students the opportunity to reflect on their internship experience, think critically about the issues their host organization is addressing, problem-solve with their peers, and think contextually about their observations of New Orleans. As a part of the seminar, students will be responsible for producing a final project reflective of their work on-site and the knowledge they have gained through their experience.