This study involves the social structures and processes contained in the organization of New Orleans jazz musicians. The literature concerning the sociology of musicians as well as general sociology suggests some initial hypotheses. These hypotheses involve sociological concepts such as formalization, socialization into jazz, band cohesion, band-audience relations, commercialism and organizational type. However, the hypotheses function merely as starting points for the major purpose of this paper -- the generation of emergent theory. The emergent theory involves the concept of formalization as well as the other concepts previously mentioned. The data from which the theory emerges are provided by histories of jazz, biographies and autobiographies, institutional sources and interviews with seventeen commercial jazzmen. The findings in relation to New Orleans jazzmen indicate that changes in the type of organization that the musicians manifest have important consequences for the variables selected for the hypotheses. In addition, some general theoretical findings emerge; e.g., the nature of the dialectical relationship between orientation and organization is explored. More specifically, the findings suggest that first (on the macro level) as the musicians have become more formal (and less communal) in organization and progressively white vis-a-vis racial composition, the socialization into music has become more secondary, the codification associated with the production of music has increased, the end product has become objectified (in the form of recordings), and the social class of the musicians has increased from "lower-middle" to "upper-middle" class. Second (on the biographical level), the following changes are associated with the orientations of the musicians throughout their careers: perception of codification within the organization decreases; the social distance between the musician and the band decreases; the orientation of the musician changes from traditional to commercial; and the commitment to the band increases. Finally, a formal theoretical statement suggests that there is a dialectical relationship between orientations and social organization. / Ph. D.

The purpose of this study is to make a comparison of the curriculum changes made in the secondary schools of Texas and Louisiana since 1920, and to determine if these changes conform to changes in accepted educational aims.

This study explored high school communication (i.e., policy translation) of Louisiana statutes pertaining to postsecondary opportunities aligned with the CTE graduation pathway and the implementation of curriculum tracks through high school track-shifting policies. Two research questions guided this study: 1) To what extent do diploma policies listed on high school websites in the Louisiana Acadiana region describe the actual postsecondary opportunities available to students in a CTE program? and 2) What information do high school websites reveal about curriculum track-shifting policies? To answer these questions, I conducted a manifest content analysis (Kleinheksel et al., 2020) of websites for 29 traditional public high schools operated by school districts in Louisiana's Acadiana region. My analysis was guided by a conceptual framework that included horizontal differentiation, track shifting, and misinformation (Rosenbaum, 1978; Sørensen, 1970). Two major themes emerged in the findings: Inconsistent and Incomplete Information about Postsecondary Options for CTE Diploma Pathway Students and Limited Flexibility (Semi-Closed) Curriculum System. These themes and their respective subthemes revealed that high school websites contained inconsistent and incomplete information about graduation pathways that constrains students' postsecondary options. Findings from this study offer implications for practice, policy and policy translation, and future research regarding high school diploma policies, curriculum tracks, track-shifting policies, and curriculum enrollment decisions. This study also offers recommendations for officials at the state level and school leaders at the local level. / Doctor of Philosophy / Postsecondary opportunities means the career and college options students have after high school. This research looked into how high school websites in Louisiana's Acadiana region communicate information about postsecondary opportunities for students who choose the Career and Technical Education (CTE) graduation pathway. It also studied how they handle curriculum track-shifting policies for students. Two research questions guided this study: 1) To what extent do diploma policies listed on high school websites in the Louisiana Acadiana region describe the actual postsecondary opportunities available to students in a CTE program? and 2) What information do high school websites reveal about curriculum track-shifting policies? To answer these questions, I used a specific type of analysis to examine websites for 29 traditional public high schools operated by school districts in the region. My analysis was guided by a framework that included three aspects of policy research related to graduation pathways. Two major themes emerged in the findings: Inconsistent and Incomplete Information about Postsecondary Options for CTE Diploma Pathway Students and Limited Flexibility (Semi-Closed) Curriculum System. My findings showed that high school websites contained inconsistent and incomplete information about graduation pathways that limit students' postsecondary options. This study concludes with recommendations for school and state officials and future researchers to clarify communication about the career and college opportunities available to CTE students once they graduate from high school.

Federal guidelines required prime sponsors under the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act, or CETA, to serve the "significant segments" of the eligible population. This study analyzes whether prime sponsors in Texas and Louisiana correctly identified and served those segments. This study finds that eligible ethnic groups were properly identified and were served equitably; age and gender distinctions, however, were inadequately observed in the providing of services.

Cookbooks have a unique ability to record women.s history, both private and public. Cookbooks transmit not only instructions for preparing specific dishes, but also the values of class, race and gender of the times and places in which they are created. This study will focus on several such cookbooks produced by Louisiana women in the mid-twentieth century, from the 1930s to the 1970s. Different though these works are, they collectively demonstrate that the best cookbook authors are purveyors not only of recipes, but also of class values, ethnic relations and folklore, and gender models that one generation of women endeavors to transmit to the next. Most important, this study will argue that these cookbooks provide a rich and penetrating insight into the class structure in rural Louisiana, race and accomplishment in an era of segregation, and the role of gender in domestic and professional occupation.

This thesis deals with the life and career and intimate life of Francis Carroll Grevemberg, an antiaircraft World War II officer from New Orleans, Louisiana. Grevemberg joined the Louisiana National Guard in 1932 and began his military career in the midst of the Great Depression. In the reorganization of the U.S. Army before World War II, the War Department transformed Grevemberg's cavalry regiment into a coastal artillery battalion with antiaircraft capability. During World War II, Grevemberg saw continuous action in the North Africa, Italy and Southern France. He regularly wrote letters from battlefields to his wife Dorothy. These letters provide a important window into a young officer's feelings, thoughts and affection in the unfolding of World War II. They are documents of a soldier's emotional release during times of crises. Lt. Col. Grevemberg is a rare, World War II antiaircraft artillery officer who took part and survived five amphibious landings in the Mediterranean.

Visitors to Antebellum New Orleans rarely failed to comment on the highly visible population of free persons of color, particularly the women. Light, but not white, the women who collectively became known as Quadroons enjoyed a degree of affluence and liberty largely unknown outside of Southeastern Louisiana. The Quadroons of New Orleans, however, suffered from neglect and misrepresentation in nineteenth and twentieth-century accounts. Historians of slavery and southern black women, for example, have written at length on the sexual experiences of black women and white men. Most of the research, however, centers on the institutionalized rape, victimization, and exploitation of black women at the hands of white males. Even late into the twentieth century, scholars largely failed to distinguish the experiences of free women of color from those of enslaved women with little nuance in regard to economic, educational, and cultural differences. All women of color -- whether free or enslaved -- continued to be viewed through the lens of slavery. Studies that examine free women of color were rare and those focusing exclusively on them alone were virtually nonexistent. As a result, the actual experiences of free women of color in the Gulf States passed unnoticed for generations. In the event that the Quadroons of New Orleans were mentioned at all, it was normally within the context of the mythologized balls or in scandalous tales where they played the role of mistress to white men, subsequently resulting in a one dimensional character that lived expressly for the enjoyment of white males. Due to the relative silence of their own voices, approaching the topic of New Orleans’ Quadroons at length is difficult at best. But by placing these women within a wider pan-Atlantic framework and using extant legal records, the various African, Caribbean, French, and Spanish cultural threads emerge that contributed to the colorful cultural tapestry of Antebellum New Orleans. These influences enabled such practices as placage and by extension, the development of an intellectual, wealthy, vibrant Creole community of color headed by women.

Many construction projects in the United States are facing the risk of cost overrun and schedule delays. This is also happening here in the State of Louisiana. When these things happen, it causes cost overrun which can then be passed on to the tax payers and may also cause the state to take on less projects than they normal. Many researchers have studied the reasons behind both the cost overrun and the delays resulting in private firms, developing project management tools and best practices to prevent this risk. In this research, I aim to study the historical trend in 2912 publically funded projects in the State of Louisiana. The study will reveal the overall state level of accuracy of forecasting cost and schedule. A forecasting formula based on those historical projects will be developed to assist estimators at the Parish level in predicting cost and schedule performance. The State of Louisiana has so many projects that deal with the transportation system (roadway, bridges, drainage, traffic sign, traffic signal, lighting etc...) My Dissertation will be a study and analysis of time and cost of the projects in LADOTD, whether the projects finish on time, before time or after time as well as the cost of the project that has been completed overrun or underrun or the exact amount that the bid amount was. With this study and analysis, my intention is to create time schedule and cost to be used to on reaching accuracy on finishing the project on time and the exact bid amount of the project (exclude whether condition, extra work, and some unexpected problems that may arise during the length of the project).

Cette thèse représente le résultat d’une analyse linguistique et d’une description lexicographique des variantes topolectales du français de la Louisiane telles que relevées dans un corpus de théâtre cadien contemporain. Nous présentons nos résultats sous la forme d’un glossaire dont les articles sont conçus selon l’approche de la lexicographie historico-comparative et différentielle. En analysant ces lexèmes et leurs emplois dans une triple perspective : diachronique, diastratique et diatopique, nous effectuons un classement rigoureux de chaque régionalisme sur les axes historique et différentiel.À travers notre traitement lexicographique, nous portons une attention spéciale aux mots d’origine inconnue et aux anglicismes, qui ont trop souvent été traités d’une manière sommaire par le passé. Nous présentons l’histoire de chaque particularité, et expliquons la raison d’être de chaque néologisme, information jusqu’à aujourd’hui non disponible pour la plupart de ces lexèmes. / This doctoral thesis represents the result of a linguistic analysis and a lexicographic description of topolectal variants of French in Louisiana selected from a corpus of contemporary Cajun theater. We present our findings through the form of a glossary whose articles are conceived in the approach of comparative, historical and differential lexicography. Analyzing these lexemes and their usage in a triple perspective: chronological, stratificational and topological, we carry out a rigorous classification of each regionalism on the historical and differential levels.Through our lexicographical treatment, will pay special attention to words of unknown origin and to Anglicisms, which have too often been treated in the past in a summary manner. We present the history of each particularity, and explain the reason behind each neologism, information which has been missing until now for the majority of these terms.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Geography / Kevin P. Price / A major strategy in response to rapid degradation and loss of Louisiana’s coastal wetlands has been the construction of siphon diversion projects. The diversions are designed to reintroduce nutrient enriched freshwater from the Mississippi River into wetland ecosystems to combat saltwater intrusion and stimulate marsh growth. The lack of consensus regarding the effects of river diversions on nutrient enrichment of wetland ecosystems is coupled with major concerns about eutrophication. Locating, assessing, and monitoring eutrophic marsh vegetation represent major challenges to understanding the impacts of freshwater diversions. As a result, this study was undertaken to investigate the feasibility of modeling eutrophication vulnerability of a coastal Louisiana marsh receiving turbid Mississippi River water. The major objective was to integrate remotely sensed data with field measurements of vegetation biophysical characteristics and historical ecosystem survey data to delineate landscape patterns suggestive of vulnerability to eutrophication. The initial step in accomplishing this goal was to model the spatial distribution of freshwater impacts using satellite image-based turbidity frequency data associated with siphon diversion operation. Secondly, satellite and spectroradiometer band combinations and vegetation indices optimal for modeling marsh biophysical characteristics related to nutrient enrichment were identified. Finally, satellite image data were successfully integrated with measures of historical and concurrent marsh biophysical characteristics to model the spatial distribution of eutrophication vulnerability and to elucidate the impacts of freshwater diversions.