PANELISTS AND DISCUSSANTS   ISN Fall 2000 Event:  "Creolization in the Academy and the Community"     A Symposium on Cultural Representations of Creole Identities in New Orleans and the Caribbean with a Companion Exhibit featuring the work of local artist Ulrick Jean-Pierre

Dr. Michael Dash, Professor of French, New York University, will discuss his forthcoming scholarly work on Haiti (published by Greenwood Press, 2000) and his current research-in-progress, titled Caribbean Postmodernities, part of a series edited by Bruce King for Cassell Editions in London. In particular, Dr. Dash will address Ulrick Jean-Pierre’s visual art and Haitian thematics in the context of postmodern and postcolonial theoretical discourses of hybridized identities and historical processes of métissage, or creolization. Dr. Dash is a renowned scholar of the Francophone literature and culture in the Caribbean whose work explores the links between the United States and the Caribbean in interesting ways. See for example his books: The Other America: Caribbean Literature in a New World Context (1998), Haiti and the United States (1997), Haiti and the U.S.: National Stereotypes and the Literary Imagination (1988), and Literature and Ideology in Haiti (1981).

Ulrick Jean-Pierre,  a visual artist currently residing and working in the New Orleans community. He is a graduate of Le Foyer Des Arts Plastiques in Haiti. He has also studied at the University of the Arts, formerly the Philadelphia College of Arts, and the Fleisher Memorial School of the Arts. His works figure in private collections, museums, galleries and universities in the United States, Canada, Europe, Africa, and Haiti.  Jean-Pierre will personally guide several tours of his work on Nov. 4th (for more information on the symposium program, click HERE) and will deliver one of the symposium's keynote addresses.  Click HERE for more information on Ulrick Jean-Pierre.

Dr. Tom Klingler, Professor of French and Creole/Cajun linguist in the French & Italian Department of Tulane University will talk about the preservation of the Creole language and what is being done in the academy and the community to preserve the Creole language and heritage.  A consultant on the NEH project to create a dictionary of Cajun French, a popular conference speaker and a committed Creole language scholar often invited to participate in New Orleans’ cultural events and festivals, Dr. Klingler will share his unique perspective on the survival of the Creole language in southern Louisiana. Among his many publications, the following will be of interest to our symposium audience: ‘If I Could Turn My Tongue Like That’: The Creole of Pointe Coupée Parish, Louisiana (forthcoming, Louisiana State UP), Dictionary of Louisiana Creole (1998: co-authored), and "Colonial Society and the Development of Louisiana Creole" in Language Variety in the South Revisited (1997).

Dr. Tola Mosadomi, Head of the McGehee Secondary School’s Foreign Languages Department, as well as an African Scholar and Writer, will discuss her collaborative work with Creole Scholar Sybil Kein on Gumbo People, a recent anthology that preserves in print the oral stories, poems and songs of the Creole people of Louisiana. She will also discuss her unique view on creolization as an African scholar and creative writer and then address the role of heritage preservation and transmission in the secondary school sector.

Cecile Accilien, Department of French and Italian, Tulane University, who specializes in creolization issues in the Caribbean and in West Africa and the Indian Ocean, will discuss the recent developments in theorizing a poetics of creolization in Martinque, Guadeloupe and Haiti. She will also present some of her recent research on creolization and plantation life in the Caribbean. 

Dr. Sybil Kein, Distinguished Professor Emerita at the University of Michigan and Specialist in Louisina Creole Culture, will discuss the community’s involvement in her recently published scholarly work on the Creole Heritage, Gumbo People. She will also discuss her role as a musical performer in preserving the rich musical heritage of the Creole people in Louisiana. As a university academic with strong community ties, Dr. Kein will suggest ways to facilitate dialogue, exchange and collaboration between the university and the community.

Dixon Abreu, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Tulane University, will present recent work on creolization in the hispanophone areas of the Caribbean and discuss the Spanish influence on creolization in the Caribbean and in New Orleans.

Dr. Bill Reeves, President of the Louisiana Historical Society, will discuss the role of the Louisiana Historical Society in preserving local heritage and present some of his recent scholarship on Louisiana plantations.