#26426-Non-Guaranteed Italian American LLC Session

Title: Italian Creole: Accents and Intersections

This panel takes the rich history of Italian Americans in New Orleans as a starting point for exploring the politics and power of ethnic visibility in New Orleans. Italians and Italian Americans were foundational to the early infrastructure of New Orleans, from Pietro Maspero’s New Exchange Coffee Salon to the famous Hotel Monteleone to the city’s earliest groceries. Italian American cuisine and cultural traditions also permeate the city and its mythos: need we say more than “Muffaletta”? However, the inverse of this hyper-visible cultural saturation is a complex world of submerged politics and power. Maspero’s Coffee Salon, for example, made most of its money from its backroom trade in kidnapped people; the famed St. Joseph Parade often plays second or third fiddle to St. Patrick’s Day and the Mardi Gras Indians’ Super Sunday celebration. This panel seeks a wide range of approaches and examples that celebrate and interrogate Italian American contributions to the life of New Orleans from the early colonial period to the present day. We invite proposals that draw on the many cultural institutions, artifacts, and histories of Italian Americans in New Orleans, from publications and artworks to the businesses and community centers created by and for Italian Americans in New Orleans.

Please send 250-word abstract and 75-word bio to Sarah Salter (sarah.h.salter@emory.edu) and Colleen Ryan (ryancm@indiana.edu) by March 15, 2024.