AAG Annual Meeting – NEW ORLEANS 2018
Join the Association of American Geographers at the AAG Annual Meeting in New Orleans, April 10-14, 2018, for the latest in research and applications in geography, sustainability, and GIScience. The AAG Annual Meeting is an interdisciplinary forum open to anyone with an interest in geography and related disciplines. All scholars, researchers, and students are welcome.…
Hating Bourbon Street
In this excerpt from this 2014 book Bourbon Street: A History (LSU Press), Tulane geographer Richard Campanella explains the curious cultural phenomenon of hating Bourbon Street—who hates it, why they need you to know they hate it, and what they’re missing when they hate it. Courtesy Places Journal. New Orleans: Place Portraits — Over the next…
A Night on the Town in 1930s New Orleans
If AAG came to New Orleans 85 years ago, you might be hitting a “nitery” on Rampart Street or a dance hall in the “Tango Belt” tonight. Tulane geographer Richard Campanella takes you out for a night on the town in 1930s New Orleans, courtesy Preservation in Print Magazine (PDF). New Orleans: Place Portraits — Over…
Mapping the Geography of Cool
Coolness, by its very nature, explores edgy terrain; thus, in cities, it becomes geographical, occupying certain spaces, disdaining others, and seeking new ones when uncoolness approaches. And that’s when, and where, coolness affects real estate. Tulane geographer Richard Campanella maps the geography of cool in New Orleans, courtesy The Times-Picayune (PDF). New Orleans: Place Portraits…
New Orleans, Unmonumentalized
Much has been said and written about the recent removal of four New Orleanian monuments to Confederate leaders and an 1874 white supremacist uprising . More will be said at the Annual Meeting. The wide-ranging struggle over New Orleanian monuments includes how those memorials (re)defined New Orleans’ place in American space and time around Lost…
Neutral Ground: From the Political Geography of Imperialism to the Street of New Orleans
AAG visitors may hear locals refer to street medians as “neutral grounds.” It’s a term distinct to New Orleans, with roots in political and ethnic geography from 200 years ago, according to Tulane geographer Richard Campanella, courtesy Louisiana Cultural Vistas (PDF). New Orleans: Place Portraits — Over the next nine months, AAG’s “Focus on New Orleans…
The Great Footprint Debate, Updated
In the tumultuous aftermath of the 2005 Katrina deluge, New Orleanians debated passionately a fundamental geographical question: should the city close down flood-damaged neighborhoods and shrink its urban “footprint” in the interest of environmental sustainability, or does every citizen have a right to return to their home? Tulane geographer Richard Campanella revisits “the Great Footprint…
A Glorious Mess: Perceptual History of New Orleans Neighborhoods
Be skeptical of “official” city neighborhoods, writes Tulane geographer Richard Campanella. Neighborhoods are best delineated, named, and understood by the people who inhabit them, he argues, and in New Orleans, that makes for a glorious mess. Courtesy New Orleans Magazine. New Orleans: Place Portraits — Over the next nine months, AAG’s “Focus on New Orleans and…
Louisiana’s Turn to Mass Incarceration: The Building of a Carceral State
Louisiana's prison and jail incarceration rates from 1978 to 2015 showing the number of people incarcerated in state prisons and local jails per 100,000 people; #methodology The history of the Louisiana penal system is marked through crisis. For the majority of the 20th century such crises revolved around the state’s singular prison, the Louisiana State…
Disaster and Response in an Experiment Called New Orleans, 1700s-2000s
Courtesy Oxford Research Encyclopedia, Tulane geographer Richard Campanella analyzes three centuries of disasters in New Orleans—storm, flood, fire, plague, war, among others—and how the city has responded, recovered, and transformed. New Orleans: Place Portraits — Over the next nine months, AAG’s “Focus on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast,” will feature a series of articles on…
How ‘Forward Thrust’ Reshaped Southern Geography
Take a look at where the capitals of Southern states and colonies were located originally, and where state capitals are today. Most have been moved inland, including Louisiana’s; New Orleans once had capital-city status until it transferred to Baton Rouge in the 1840s. Tulane geographer explains the pattern, courtesy Louisiana Cultural Vistas (PDF). New Orleans:…
The History—and Geography—of Public Drinking in New Orleans
Drinking has a geography, and New Orleans has a geography of drinking. Where did this come from, and how does it work? Tulane geographer examines a key moment on Bourbon Street in the 1960s when potations took to the public space. Courtesy The Times-Picayune (PDF). New Orleans: Place Portraits — Over the next nine months, AAG’s…