In the Wake of the Hurricanes
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Louisiana Division of the Arts posts this information about the Coalition here to facilitate communication. In the Wake of the Hurricanes: A Coalition Effort to Collect Our Stories and Rebuild Our Culture A coalition of scholars and the public interested in documenting the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have begun a landmark cooperative effort to provide a framework for comparing data collected from independently funded projects. The coalition provides basic questions and a form for collecting the same demographic information, allowing comparison of stories and other information gathered by many interviewers. The American Folklife Center in the Library of Congress has agreed to partner with the Coalition and be a secondary repository for materials collected. Participating scholars will designate in-state repositories in their specific regions. Currently, we have faculty involved from the following universities: LSU, ULL, USM, Tulane, La. Tech, NSU, UNO, Dillard, Grambling State, Delta State, Duke, and faculty from universities across the country, as well as independent scholars. Among the information collected will be evacuation narratives, stories of relocation, memories of communities and neighborhoods that flooded and the relationship between strong cultural identity and decision making in a crisis. The information gathered will be used:
Coalition members have embraced the idea of training evacuees and other community scholars to interview. This project echoes the 1930s WPA projects, providing skills, training, and remuneration to those who have lost income and jobs from this disaster. In those projects hundreds of people were paid to document culture and heritage in the wake of the Great Depression. Those WPA projects have formed some of our nation's most important collections, including the WPA Slave Narratives and the WPA and FSA photography projects. This training provides many important skills, including technical, listening, and communication training. The Coalition provides a basic data collection form to be entered into a central database; recommended research topics and questions; a collecting kit (modeled on the Veterans History Project) with appropriate permission forms, releases, instructions to allow for public deposit; K-12 hurricane resources that allow students to also collect data; and interviewing protocols to ensure that interviewers do not re-traumatize hurricane survivors. These materials are available through the Yahoo discussion group ResearchIntheWake. To join, email Susan Roach. The Coalition welcomes participation and invites you to join the discussion group. For more information, contact:
Hurricane Research Project Description List of Hurricane Research Partners and Email Addresses (Coming) List of Coalition Hurricane Research Projects Hurricane Survivors: Topics and Question Bank Hurricane Responders: Topics and Question Bank The following documents and forms are provided here in both MS Word and Adobe PDF formats for convenience of use and adaptation. Feel free to copy and adapt the forms as needed for post-hurricane research; however, if you are submitting your interviews as part of the coalition to be deposited ultimately with the American Folklife Center in the Library of Congress, you will have to have the appropriate release forms. Please note that the MS Word files may change formatting with different printers; margins may have to be reset, etc. Hurricane Project Forms and Releases Kit (PDF) (Coming -- will include all forms below)
K-12 Hurricane Resources from the Louisiana Voices Educator's Guide |
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