Sean Mallin, University of Notre Dame
“Perspectives on Rebuilding a ‘New’ New Orleans”
Bio: Sean Mallin is a senior economics major who likes to pretend he is an anthropologist. If everything goes to plan, one day he won't have to pretend anymore. He enjoys classic jazz and modern art, and is involved with many campus organizations, including Progressive Student Alliance. Sean has spent the past two summers in New Orleans working for Catholic Charities and conducting field research on the rebuilding process. He is currently trying to convince the university to pay for him to go to Mardi Gras for "thesis research."
Abstract: Amidst the lingering destruction of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans residents continue to rebuild their broken communities. But divided by issues of race, class, gender, and religion, the people of New Orleans hold different notions of what “New Orleans” really should be. In this paper, I share the stories of people whose day-to-day experiences are set against the backdrop of a city in (dis)repair. In this space, a discordant picture emerges. New Orleans stands in the midst of contested processes—local and global, cultural and commercial—and its future remains obscured by these power struggles. Listening to the voices that often go unheard, we can begin to understand the journey of remaking a fractured community and reconstructing lost identities. These are the perspectives that matter; these are the conflicting notions that will define the “new” New Orleans. Through these stories we can see the daily manifestations of economic disparity and racial anxiety, the tension between the economics of public and private, and the struggle of maintaining tradition in the face of (post)modernity.
