Thesis (M.A.)--University of New Orleans, 2004. / Title from electronic submission form. "A thesis ... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of History."--Thesis t.p. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Boston University, 2002. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 210-216).

Thesis (D. Ed. Min.)--New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, 2003. / Includes abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 47-52).

In what ways can historical power relationships be interpreted through a chronological analysis of historical maps, and how are these coded versions of history produced and reproduced through the modern tourist experience? I argue that historical maps can be interpreted to reveal the political influence and agendas inscribed upon the built environment. I review how the implications of these value systems can be seen in the cultural constructs and institutions that have been used over time to generate revenue through a two stage process,: first, through an analysis of historic and modern maps in two Southern cities, New Orleans and Charleston, South Carolina, and second, through personal ethnographic fieldwork. I analyze my findings to compare these two cities in their use of spatial representation to facilitate and contain a historic tourist industry that spawns local industries of historical tourism to both justify and codify these views as history.

This paper examines the production of my thesis film, “The Horse and The Castle.” I will explore the choices taken in each step of the production, from the writing process to post-production and finishing. Each area — writing, directing, production design, cinematography, editing, and sound — contained a multitude of decisions that helped to achieve my final vision for the film.

This document gives an account of my artistic efforts in creating my thesis film Fathers and Sons. This document includes sections that cover the writing, casting, production design, principal photography, and editing of my film. I give special attention to the writing process in Chapter 2, because of its personal significance to my growth as a filmmaker. This chapter details the evolution of my original story concept from a drama to a comedy. The ultimate goal of my film was to create a personal work of art. This document self-reflects on how well I was able to achieve this goal, and what I learned along the way.

Digital history has grown into a critical aspect of history scholarship and practice. The literature surrounding digital history is colored by its discussions of the possibilities and problems of digital history, both as an archiving tool and a method of increasing interaction with public history. This literature is also defined by its lack of answers to these questions, and lack of examinations of these possibilities in cases studies. By examining how three different New Orleans historical institutions have embraced digital history for preservation and public history in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, this thesis will illustrate how questions of preservation, access, and the impact of digital history on research are being answered by these institutions. The New Orleans historical institutions evaluated in this paper have used digital history to bolster their preservation in the face of natural disaster, and to foster increased interactivity and importance with the New Orleans community.

The modern gay New Orleans community was born on the neglected streets of the historic French Quarter neighborhood during the 1920s. Despite a century of harassment at the hands of local officials and the police department, this vulnerable community developed strong communal bonds in and around the French Quarter, ultimately transforming it into one of the preeminent gay neighborhoods in the United States. This study examines how a vibrant gay community thrived in the socially conservative South, shifting traditional narratives of twentieth century gay life primarily existing on the East and West Coasts. To survive, gay men and lesbians were forced to create alternative social spaces, often coopting and exploiting the traditions of heteronormative New Orleans culture. Drawing upon archival sources and personal interviews, this dissertation challenges assumptions about the apolitical nature of the gay New Orleans community. Ultimately, this is a story of how a gay community became politically active while navigating the challenges of the socially conservative Deep South.

This PhD dissertation examines the relationships between cultural heritage and the environment, focusing specifically on the devastation and rebuilding of New Orleans, Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Departing from conventional approaches to the natural world (such as documentation- and conservation-based approaches), this thesis adopts a developmental-systems based approach to cultural heritage in order to construct a new way of interpreting it, within the specific context of natural disaster. This new approach, termed 'heritage ecology', reinterprets cultural heritage in two ways: first, as a physical assemblage of sites, materials, traditions, beliefs, and practices that are constructed in significant ways by their natural environments; and second, as a metaphorical ecosystem which impacts back on the assessment and construction of that natural environment in turn. In order to construct this approach, the thesis poses three interrelated questions: how is cultural heritage transformed as a result of disaster, how do societies rebuild their heritage after disaster, and how does heritage contribute to the rebuilding process? Examining a rebuilding process in real-time provides a unique window on these processes; events and developments in New Orleans taken from the first four years of recovery (2005-2009) suggest that prior understandings of how societies rebuild themselves after disaster have neglected crucial aspects of cultural heritage that are integral to that process. The examination of data from the case study - data of diverse forms, such as historiography, the culinary arts, music, the built environment, and memorial sites and landscapes - reveals the limitations of traditional approaches to heritage and prompts a reassessment of a range of issues central to heritage research, issues such as materiality, authenticity, and commodification. This study moreover incorporates into heritage research concepts previously unconsidered, such as infrastructure and policy. In the coming century of global climate change and increased environmental hazards, this last theme will become increasingly central to heritage policy and research; the dissertation concludes accordingly, with a reflection on contingency and future disaster.

Disasters are an ever increasing phenomena in our society, resulting in many people being adversely affected. the social vulnerability paradigm explores the social, economic and political factors which contribute to certain populations being disproportionately affected by disasters. However, the paradigm has not yet begun to investigate the cultural or religious ideologies which may affect a population's behavior in disaster. This study is an exploratory investigation into whether religious ideologies may impact a person's decision to prepare, or not, in the event of a disaster. Specifically, it seeks to investigate whether a person who holds a belief that natural disasters are under God's control will prepare for the hazard? the study undertaken five years after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans show that religious ideology is closely linked with one's capacity to prepare for the hazard which is closely tied in with social structure. It may appear that a person's 'fatalistic' attitude is tied to economic inability to prepare for a hazard. This does not mean that they will not prepare but that preparation may include prayer as their initial attempt to mitigate.