On July 4th, 2007, a small group of housing activists set up a tent city encampment in a plaza adjacent to New Orleans City Hall. The action resulted in the creation of Homeless Pride, a small group of politicized Plaza residents. Six months later, hundreds of homeless people were moved from the park, and it was fenced off. Using archival videos, interviews, and news media, this thesis analyzes the opportunities and constraints that activists, service providers, and local officials faced in light of two intersecting and overlapping contexts. The first context is the immediate crisis of the levee failures after Hurricane Katrina, and the second is the longer-term national political-economic context of “neoliberal urbanism”. Because of dire short-term circumstances, Homeless Pride articulated a message of homelessness as a “crisis” even though they had larger structural goals and vision. In light of recent “Occupy” movements, this case study addresses crucial questions for organizers and policymakers attempting to combat poverty and wealth inequality.

The study of African American Reconstruction leadership has presented a variety of unique challenges for modern historians who struggle to piece together the lives of men, who prior to the Civil War, had little political identity. The scant amounts of primary source data in regard to these leaders’ lives before the war, the destruction of many documents in regard to their leadership following the Reconstruction Era, and the treatment of these figures by historians prior to the Revisionist movement have left this body of extremely important political figures largely unexplored. This dissertation will examine the life of one of Louisiana’s foremost leaders, Lt. Governor Oscar James Dunn, the United States’ first African American executive officeholder. Using previously overlooked papers, Masonic records, Senate journals, newspaper articles and government documents, the dissertation explores Dunn’s role in Louisiana politics and chronicles the factionalization of the Republican Party in Reconstruction New Orleans. Born a slave and released from bondage at an early age, Oscar J. Dunn was able to transcend the stigma which was often attached to those who had been held in slavery. A native of New Orleans, born to Anglo-African parents, he was also able to transcend the language barrier that often excluded Anglo-Africans from social acceptability in Afro-Creole society. Although illiterate, Dunn’s parents made critical strides in securing his social mobility by providing him with both a formal education and a trade apprenticeship. Those skills propelled Dunn forward within his Anglo-African community wherein he became a key figure in the community’s two most important institutions, the York Rite Masonic Lodge and the African Methodist Episcopal church. This dissertation argues that Dunn’s political ascent was linked to the political enfranchisement of antebellum Anglo-Africans in Louisiana, Dunn’s involvement in Anglo-African institutions (particularly the York Rite Masonic Lodge and the African Methodist Episcopal church) and Dunn’s ability to find middle ground in the racially charged arguments that engulfed Reconstruction New Orleans’s political arena. Keywords: Oscar Dunn, Reconstruction, New Orleans, Republican, Louisiana, African American, Politics

In the hospitality industry, women with children are in a unique position. Government deregulation of corporate labor practices, the exit of manufacturing overseas, and the rise of the service sector economy in the United States has contributed to the development of a surplus, low-wage labor force. Tourism is one subset of this labor force that deserves further attention. Although there is substantial literature on the structure of low-wage labor in tourism economies (Herod and Aguiar, 2006), as well as the impacts on work-family balance (Liladrie, 2009), a less explored topic is the impacts hospitality labor has on mothering. The purpose of this study is to explore the experiences of women with children who 1) work in the hospitality industry and 2) whose work is located in the tourism districts of Seattle, Washington and New Orleans, Louisiana. The investigator used semi-structured, qualitative interviews that asked women about the decisions they make for their children, how their work in hospitality influences their parenting decisions, and how they assign meaning to their roles as mothers. The investigator found that women in the hospitality industry do not separate work and motherhood as two separate spheres. Work is a mothering strategy. The decisions they make for their children are characterized by mobility, particularly through relocation. Finally, this study found that women who work in the hospitality industry navigate various “markers” that stigmatize them in the workplace. The investigator calls this “motherhood markers;” forms of stigma that intensify emotional labor in their workplaces, can create tension with employers and co-workers and, in some cases, termination of their employment.

Sustainable development is achieved through the equal promotion of environmental protection, economic development and social equity. Urban planners play a key role in sustainable development through the mediation of tensions inherent between these priorities. Using urban planning theory that focuses on the conflicts between the priorities of sustainable development and lessons learned from planning practice provides a basis from which to evaluate the claims of sustainability present in the Greater New Orleans Urban Water Plan. Outreach initiatives, policy frameworks and ecosystem co-management are suggested to make the planning and implementation processes of the Greater New Orleans Urban Water Plan more feasible in terms of its ability to foster sustainability. Additionally, conceptualizing integrated stormwater management for Greater New Orleans within the context of the Louisiana coastal crisis can help to make the goals of the Urban Water Plan more realistic in the long term and boost institutional capacity to promote regional resilience.

This thesis builds on previous work on the relationship between queer identities and urban space. Drawing from an analysis of two recurring New Orleans-based queer women’s events, I examine how lesbians and queer women not only use but also actively produce social spaces of their own through participation in events organized specifically for lesbians and queer women. Using qualitative methods, I examine the ephemeral and transient quality of lesbian and queer women’s social spaces in post-Katrina New Orleans and the processes through which such spaces come into being. I argue that lesbian and queer women’s production of ephemeral social spaces provides an opportunity to ground informal social networks in urban spatial locations, to sustain internal visibility, and to create embodied impressions of a cohesive community by emphasizing the role of the body, not geographic borders, for reimagining social territories in urban landscapes. Within this context, attention is given to the class-based and racial projects that affect the trajectory of contemporary queer urban space formation and queer women’s experiences therein.

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This musical, arts-based educational research describes the lived experiences of four K-12 New Orleans educators who believe that end-of-year standardized tests hinder their ability to teach in ways they believe are best. Using songwriting as a form of data elicitation and narrative restorying, this study documents the lived experiences of teachers who have experienced test-related cognitive dissonance. While curricular narrowing and other test-related practices have been studied in many contexts, the perspectives of New Orleans teachers are barely documented. Thus, this study fills a content gap in the testing literature. Musically restorying the data contributes to the accountability literature in three main ways. First, restorying the data as song renders the findings evocatively — that is, in ways that capture the emotion with which the data was originally imbued. Second, because this study is performative (the results were sung live in the community), the opportunity exists to ignite a local conversation aimed at helping teachers navigate testing/teaching conundrums. Finally, as music is one of the least utilized forms of art-based research, this study fills a methodological gap in the arts-based research repository.

Mentoring has been used for centuries as a way for a person to pass on knowledge, skills, or support to a less experienced person. Mentoring in the workplace, however, was not studied until the early 1980s, and then more than a decade later, mentoring was studied in the context of the K-12 teacher workforce. Mentoring has improved teacher effectiveness (Yuan, 2015; Koedel, 2009; Campbell and Malkus, 2011); increased teachers’ self-efficacy (Ingersoll & May, 2011; Saffold, 2005; Louis, 2016); and contributed to teacher retention (Ingersoll & Kralik, 2004; Cohen & Fuller, 2006). Most mentoring studies and theories, however, have been developed with a teacher population that is largely White. While about 50% of students in K-12 public schools in the U.S. are non-White, only 18% of teachers are non-White. Because teachers of color have a profound and positive impact on students, they are worth studying. The purpose of this study is to understand the mentoring experiences of teachers of color in K-12 public charter schools in New Orleans, and to explore how teachers of color benefited from mentoring in the areas of career development and psychosocial support. The researcher utilized a qualitative, phenomenological approach by interviewing ten participants and analyzing the essence of their experiences. Five themes resulted from this research: race plays a significant role in the mentoring of teachers of color; the charter school system in New Orleans has had an impact on the racial make-up of teachers; informal and formal mentoring form a winning combination; mentors provided teachers of color with validation and cultural navigation tools; and mentoring improved teaching practices and retention. This study can have an impact on mentoring theory as it relates to race and identity. This study also has practical implications for K-12 leaders in the way that teachers of color are supported.

La résilience est la capacité à s’adapter aux menaces et à atténuer ou éviter un risque, elle peut être trouvée dans des bâtiments résistant aux dangers ou dans des systèmes sociaux adaptables (Pelling, 2003). Par conséquence, ce concept peut aussi être compris comme la capacité de reconstruire un quartier avec des composants plus solides et plus viables. Presque quatre ans après l’ouragan Katrina, la Nouvelle-Orléans est considérée comme un laboratoire à ciel ouvert. Le niveau de résilience de ses communautés peut y être examiné. L’état actuel de la reconstitution de ses quartiers diffère largement des uns aux autres. L’arrondissement historique de Holy Cross est l’un des plus vieux quartiers de la ville, cette communauté vulnérable est connue pour son patrimoine culturel, apparent non seulement dans son architecture unique, mais aussi ses relations sociales. Un des principaux défi de la reconstruction du quartier de Holly Cross est de trouver une façon de concilier la préservation du patrimoine bâti et de son tissu urbain ancien avec de nouveaux plans de développement, afin de créer une communauté durable. Cette étude examine les rôles des acteurs impliqués dans le processus de reconstruction et leur efficacité sur la création d’un Holy Cross plus durable, résistant et abordable, afin d’encourager le retour de ses résidents. Elle présente également les efforts actuels pour proposer des projets de reconstruction durables tout en préservant le caractère patrimonial du quartier. / Resiliency is the capacity to adjust to threats and mitigate or avoid harm; it can be found in hazard-resistant buildings or adaptive social systems (Pelling, 2003). Hence, it can also be understood as the ability to rebuild a neighbourhood with stronger and more viable components. Almost four years after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans is seen as an open laboratory in which the level of resiliency of its communities can be examined. The rebuilding status of its neighbourhoods widely differs from one to another. The historic district of Holy Cross is one of the oldest neighbourhoods in the city; this vulnerable community is known for its cultural heritage, apparent not only in its unique architecture but also its social relations. This research investigates the current process of rebuilding a more sustainable and resilient Holy Cross by assessing the efficiency of stakeholders involved in the reconstruction of affordable opportunities that work to encourage former residents to return. It also demonstrates the current efforts to build new sustainable projects while keeping the patrimonial style of the neighbourhood.

Natural disasters are increasing in both number and severity, causing the number of people being displaced by disaster to rise as well. Hurricane Katrina provides a particularly poignant example of the human impact of disaster, and of inadequate disaster response, especially where housing is concerned. The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans exposed a gap in the approach to housing survivors of natural disasters, especially at the interim housing level. The FEMA trailer - which was only intended to house survivors temporarily but, in many cases, became a long term housing solution, - provided shelter for survivors, but did not account for their psychological well-being. The loss of one’s home can be a traumatic experience, as people identify their sense of self with their home. Therefore, it is crucial to reinstate this sense of home, and in turn provide continuity to the sense of self, early on in the recovery process. Rebuilding after a natural disaster is a long process. Because of this, disaster housing needs to be able to evoke a sense of home and ownership so that inhabitants can connect with their environment and reinstate their daily routines. This helps them to rebuild their lives. The proposed project attempts to do this by allowing for flexibility and choice in both the design and daily use of the house. The house transitions from temporary to permanent housing, allowing for a dialogue between inhabitant and environment to begin early on in the recovery process, and to persist. The design is informed by theories on place making, elements of home, dwelling, as well as loss and the grieving process.