Staff

Principal Investigator: Max Krochmal, Ph.D., Professor of History and Director of Justice Studies

Mellon Postdoctoral Research Associate: Rafael Delgadillo, Ph.D.

Advisory Board

Thomas J. Adams, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, University of South Alabama

Leah Bailey, Community and Political Organizer, UNITE HERE Local 23

Sarah Fouts, Ph.D., Associate Professor of American Studies, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (website)

Edith Romero, Organizer, Union Migrante

Ben Zucker, Co-Founder and Co-Director, Step Up Louisiana

The lab's first project seeks to recover and preserve the activist cultures of two broad categories of essential laborers in the city: 1) tourism and hospitality, including hotel, restaurant, and other services such as musicians, cultural workers, and related construction and day laborers that are integral to the city's economic base in tourism; and 2) healthcare workers. Both groups are making headlines in recent years as their unions have achieved unprecedented victories.

This project uses oral history and kindred methods to publicly document the history and present of essential workers' own collective organizing in New Orleans, a city in the crosshairs of climate change and suffering extreme inequities further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our team of academic researchers partners with representatives from local unions, workers' centers, non-profits, and community-based storytellers and archives to record and preserve new oral history interviews with tourism industry and healthcare workers who have been or are current advocates in the struggle for higher wages, stable employment, fair treatment, and unionization in their industries. Our pool of narrators includes rank and file workers, union staff, and community organizers.

We seek to learn directly from the rank and file leaders who not only advocated for better conditions on the job but also rallied their co-workers or brought neighbors and other activists into the fight with them. We want to understand the cultures of their workplaces, the solidarities they forged, the visions they expounded, and the successes and failures of their various campaigns, strategies, and tactics. We ask broad, open-ended questions about their childhoods and early lives, their transitions into the workforce, and the ways in which they got involved in collective organizing. Their stories shed light on not only their personal experiences but the broader experiences of the many workers they sought to bring together and represented as union and community organizers.

This project links leading academic researchers with community partners, both of whom play a central role in directing and executing the project. Our five-member Advisory Board includes allied researchers and representatives from relevant unions and membership-based working-class organizations. Board members work collaboratively with us to identify and recruit interviewees and are invited to join in conducting interviews and interpreting and presenting our findings.

First, the oral history interviews will be deposited in both a digital and brick-and-mortar repository, the Louisiana and Special Collections of the Earl K. Long Library at LSU New Orleans. These complete videotaped records will be archived for preservation and made available for public use, both in-person on Blu-Ray and via the internet via ScholarWorks@LSU New Orleans. 

Second, with the assistance of the members of our Advisory Board (see above), we will also create a digital exhibit or microsite in which we identify key themes and select clips from the interviews in order to write a series of interpretive multimedia mini-essays that will be published online. At the conclusion of the pilot project, in late spring 2026, we will host a public presentation at which we share our findings, engage in conversation with members of the Advisory Board and selected narrators, and unveil the website.

Alfred Carter, “Navigating Carceral Inequality: Family Voices and Institutional Barriers in Louisiana’s Juvenile Detention System.” Faculty Collaborator: Kaj Brian; Dissertation Committee Chair: Roberto Barrios. Community Partners: Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children (FFLIC) and the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights (LCCR).

Robyn Guillén, “‘People need to know about this’: Centering Caregiver Experiences of Incarcerated Juveniles in New Orleans.” Faculty Advisor: Grace Reinke. Community Partners: RISE Collective and Voice of the Experienced (VOTE).

Natalie Marx, “Studying Perceptions of Justice: A Program Evaluation of the Crescent City Community Court.” Faculty Advisor: Grace Reinke. Community Partner: Crescent City Community Court.

Amanda Mester-Brown, “UNO Community Memory Project.” Faculty Advisor: Mary N. Mitchell. Community Partner: Midlo Center for New Orleans Studies.

Conchita Iglesias McElwee, “Politicking the Lives of Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming People in America: How are Discriminatory Laws Affecting the Physical and Mental Health of the Transgender and Gender Diverse Community in the United States?” Faculty Advisor: Jeffrey N. Parker. Community Partner: Trans Income Project.

Alexandra Nordman-Becker, “Our time, our purpose, our vision: Youth organizing and the role of intergenerational collaboration- a YPAR photovoice case study.” Faculty Advisor: Steve Mumford. Community Partner: New Orleans Children and Youth Planning Board.

Todd Rowan, “Setting the Stage for Expressive Performance Down the Bayou.” Faculty Advisor: Jeffrey N. Parker. Community Partner: South Louisiana Center for the Arts.

Chantelle Sargent-Pierre, “The Black Spatial Imaginary: Everyday Place-Making and Community Transformation in Hollygrove, New Orleans.” Faculty Advisor: Jeffrey N. Parker. Community Partner: Hollygrove Neighbors Association.

Clyde Verdin, “Strength in Service: A Case Study of Serve Louisiana, AmeriCorps, and Nonprofit Capacity in South Louisiana.” Faculty Advisor: Steve Mumford. Community Partner: Serve Louisiana.

Jody Billiot, "Reclaiming the Palmetto Home: Abel's Vision." Community Partner: Pointe-Au-Chien Indian Tribe. Advisor: Dr. D. Ryan Gray

Rebecca Davidsson, "Integrated Navigation Services to End Arrest and Detention: A Mixed-Methods Evaluation of a Holistic Pre-Trial Diversion Program in Orleans Parish." Community Partner: Ubuntu Village NOLA. Advisor: Dr. Steve Mumford

Monique Legendre, "What We Wish the Decision-Makers Knew About First-Generation Student Success: A Critical Inquiry Centering First-Generation Students as the Solution Holders." Community Partner: Career Immersion and Leadership Institute (CILI). Advisor: Dr. Chris Broadhurst

Kim Lewis Williams, "Just Policing in New Orleans: Citizens' View of the Federal Consent Decree." Community Partner: New Orleans United Front. Advisor: Dr. Roberto Barrios

Eric Lincoln, "Values and Ideology in the Artisanal Workplace." Community Partner: Arts New Orleans. Advisor: Dr. Jeffrey Parker

Earl Mitchell, Jr., "Maternal Mortality Disparities Among Women in Louisiana: The Role of  Public Policy." Community Partner: Birthmark Doula Collective. Advisor: Dr. D'Lane Compton

Edward Noble, "The Effects of East Baton Rouge Secession Districts on Student Performance." Community Partner: Friends of Public Education. Advisor: Dr. Elizabeth Jeffers

Robyn Guillen, "The Future is Female: Stories of Empowerment from Formerly Incarcerated Women in Operation Restoration." Community Partner: Operation Restoration. Advisor: Dr. Grace Reinke

Amy Hession, "Centering Student and Family Voices in Special Education Decision-Making." Community Partner: Homer Plessy Community Schools. Advisor: Dr. Courtney Wait

Erica Martinez, "Growing Up in Mississippi After the Civil Rights Era: A Black and White Narrative." Community Partner: Tarik Georgia. Advisor: Dr. Max Krochmal

Emily Ratner, "To Establish Justice:' Louisiana's Constitutional Processes in Reconstruction and Today." Community Partners: Voice of the Experienced (VOTE) and the Plessy and Ferguson Initiative. Advisor: Dr. Molly Mitchell

Chauncey Reeves, "Health and Wellness Concerns of Residents of St. James Parish in Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley.'" Community Partner: RISE St. James. Advisor: Dr. Roberto Barrios