What is New Orleans? The Center for the Study of New Orleans wants you to know.
If you haven’t heard of the Center for the Study of New Orleans it might be because it’s new. And when you’re looking at a city that’s nearly 300 years old, there’s a lot of ground to cover.
You’d think studying New Orleans would be a no-brainer. We don’t need passports or lengthy plane rides. No booking a hotel room months in advance. And maybe that’s the problem. Maybe we believe the only things worth studying are ancient and away from us.
Well, Dr. Leslie Parr begs to differ. In fact, she’s said, “New Orleans is one of the few cities in the world that can sustain such intense study.” And aren’t we lucky? We’re already here!
Dr. Parr, director of the Center, is well known to those of us in the School of Mass Communication. She’s our photojournalism faculty member and holds the Shawn M. Donnelley for Non-Profit Communications professorship. Through her efforts, the Center has become a reality and will host its second event Wednesday, Oct. 21.
In trying to determine “What is New Orleans?” a distinguished panel – moderated by Loyola English professor and playwright John Biguenet – will ask, “How do you define a city?” While we might all have our own answers to that, the Center has invited Susan Saulny, a New York Times reporter and New Orleans native, Larry Powell, professor of history at Tulane University, and Richard Campanella, a Tulane University geographer, to weigh in the past and present, the geography and people that make up the Crescent City.
Like the Center’s first program, “An evening of Jazz and History” held Sept. 3, this event will take place in Nunemaker Auditorium (Monroe Hall) and is free and open to the public. It starts at 7 p.m.
But the Center’s work won’t stop there. Already there are plans for a third program, “New Orleans in the ‘60s” scheduled for Jan. 20. And on tap is a new minor for students wanting to take a more in-depth academic approach to learning about New Orleans.
If you want to know more about the Center for the Study of New Orleans just visit www.loyno.edu/csno. And we’ll see you Oct. 21. BYOB (Bring Your Own Beads).
I suppose it’s too much to hope for the center (or somebody) recording the program and putting it on the Web for those of us too distant to make it to the event. It’s not like Loyola didn’t spend a bazillion dollars (well-spent, IMO) on making sure you’re never more than a dekameter from an ethernet outlet, or that there aren’t dozens of bright-eyed communications majors who would like to have “produced Web video” on their resume somewhere. Push the envelope, people! Dare to fail spectacularly! That’s what college is for!