Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1903. / Published also as Studies in history, economics and public law, vol. 20, no. 2.

Project (D. Min.)--New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, 2008. / Abstract and vita. Includes final project proposal. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 165-170, 64-69).

Avery Island, Louisiana and McIlhenny Company provide a lens through which to understand how performances of masculinity and paternalism operated in the New South and were deployed for U. S. empire-building projects. Focusing on the tenure of Edward Avery McIlhenny as President of McIlhenny Company, this paper utilizes primary documents from the McIlhenny Company & Avery Island, Inc. Archives to construct a narrative based on correspondence between E. A. and his Wall Street investment banker, Ernest B. Tracy, revealing how E.A. confronted disaster capitalism and influenced the production of cultural tourism amidst environmental and economic crises in the 1920s and 1930s. / text

Understanding specific pathways for sand transport in the lower reaches of large rivers, particularly the Mississippi, is the key to addressing multiple significant geologic problems and for environmental restoration efforts. Field studies were performed in the Mississippi River 75-100 km upstream of the Gulf of Mexico outlet in April 2010 (water discharge: 23,000 m³ s⁻¹), May 2010 (18,500-20,500 m³ s⁻¹), and March 2011 (27,000 m³ s⁻¹) to examine sediment transport phenomena in the river channel. Methods comprised multibeam sonar bathymetric surveys, acoustic Doppler current profiler measurements of current velocity and acoustic backscatter, point-integrated isokinetic suspended sediment sampling, and channel-bed grab sampling. Channel morphology surveys revealed a 30-60 m deep thalweg, alternating between banks every 2-3 km, opposite bedform-covered lateral sand bars. Dune sizes nearest the thalweg ranged from 7 m wavelength and 0.3 m height to over 100 m wavelength and 2.3 m height as a function of water discharge, with decreasing dune sizes towards shallow water. Material comprising the dunes was well-sorted, 125-500 [mu]m sand. Bedload transport rates increased exponentially with water discharge in April 2010 and March 2011 comparable to previous studies in this reach, though rates in May 2011 were well below predicted values for a site (Myrtle Grove) immediately downriver of a sand-mining project. Average water velocities ranged from 1.3 m s⁻¹ in May 2010 to 2 m s⁻¹ in March 2011. Skin-friction shear stress increased with water discharge, but varied over an order of magnitude at all measured discharges. Suspended sand concentration and grain size increased with proximity to the bed during all study periods, and was most pronounced in March 2011. Suspended sand concentrations were greatest over the center of lateral bars, and lowest in the thalweg, indicating that sand transport downstream occurs primarily over lateral sand bars where there is a combination of high shear stress and available bed material. Total bed-material discharge increased exponentially with water discharge. Bedform-induced turbulence may be responsible for the bed material suspension. These results are relevant to coastal restoration efforts by river diversion which seek to distribute sand from the upper water column to deltaic interdistributary wetlands. / text

"Making Race: The Role of Free Blacks in the Development of New Orleans' Three-Caste Society, 1791-1812" excavates the ways that free people of African descent in New Orleans built an autonomous identity as a third "race" in what would become a unique racial caste system in the United States. I argue that in the time period I study, which encompasses not only the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, but also the rise of plantation slavery and the arrival of over twelve thousand refugees from the revolution-torn French West Indies, New Orleans's free blacks took advantage of political, cultural and legal uncertainty to protect and gain privileges denied to free blacks elsewhere in the South. The dissertation is organized around three sites in which free blacks forged and articulated a distinct collective identity: the courtroom, the ballroom, and the militia. This focus on specific spaces of racial contestation allows me to trace the multivalent development of racial identity. "Making Race" brings together the special dynamism of the Atlantic world in the Age of Revolution with the ability of individuals to act within structures of power to shape their surroundings. I show that changing political regimes (in the time period I study New Orleans was ruled by the Spanish, the French and the Americans) together with the socio-economic, ideological and demographic impact of the Haitian Revolution created opportunities for new social and legal understandings of race in the Crescent City. More importantly, however, I show how members of New Orleans's free black community, strengthened numerically and heavily influenced by thousands of gens de couleur refugees of the Haitian Revolution, shaped the racialization process by asserting a collective identity as a distinct middle caste, contributing to the creation of a tri-racial system. / text

City parks can improve the quality of life as well as the physical and mental health of its citizens, and they can lead to increases in property values and hence higher property tax revenues. However, parks can also be costly to cities, especially medium-sized cities that lack the necessary access to financing to acquire and maintain city parks. In the case of Lafayette, Louisiana, the city is struggling to acquire the University of Louisiana Horse Farm and incorporate it into its park system. This professional report reviews financing strategies for cities that are seeking to acquire land or open space, and also provides specific recommendations for the Horse Farm. Through this literature review and analysis of the Lafayette case, this professional report contributes to the literature on public financing of land for green space development, a subject of particular importance considering the important role parks play in urban life. / text

The purpose of this study is to examine self-perceived changes that occur over the course of the careers of three K-12 art educators located in north Louisiana and central Mississippi. Designed as a case study, this research focuses on the perceptions of three art educators with regard to perceived changes in their classrooms over the course of their teaching careers. Art teachers were chosen not only because of the researcher's background in the arts, but also because of the art educator's apparent underrepresentation in the body of academic research. The three art educators who were participants in this study were also chosen because of their many years of service in the field. Each has been teaching for 27 years or more in north Louisiana and central Mississippi. Included is a brief review of the researcher's teaching history and educational background in order to establish positionality, which also lends a degree of validity to the research (Villenas, 1996). In addition, this positionality serves to illuminate the researcher's epistemological perspectives and her personal ways of knowing as an art teacher (Cary, 2006). Each teacher's story was divided into a life history, a teaching history, teaching today, and significant perceived changes. Each story was accomplished through multiple taped interviews, document mining, maintaining a researcher's journal, and member checking. A synopsis was developed of the common themes that coalesce each of the teachers' lived experiences, as well as common significant changes that each has perceived over the course of their careers. Many changes were noted by each of the art teachers. The most noted changes were found in the areas of technology, the students themselves, parental involvement, peers, and the discipline of art. Implications for future research are suggested including: (a) more case studies of other art teachers, including more art teachers in north Louisiana and central Mississippi; (b) further development of the researcher's journal associated with this study; (c) and a study of some former students of each of these educators and the impact that these teachers have had on their lives. / text

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During the nineteenth century, the Gulf of Mexico fostered the movement of people, ideas, and news throughout the surrounding regions. Although each colony and state surrounding the basin had distinct cultures and traditions, they shared the legacy of slavery and emancipation. This study examines the transformation of labor that occurred for sugar planters in British Guiana and southern Louisiana during the age of emancipation. In this comparative project, I argue that in the 1830s planters from the British West Indies set the trajectory for solutions to the labor problem by curtailing the freedom of former slaves with Asian contract labor. Those in the sugar parishes of southern Louisiana followed this same framework in the 1860s yet it led to different outcomes. The nature of the circum-Caribbean provided opportunities for planters throughout the Gulf to observe the Asian indentured system and use a form of it in their distinct societies.