Michael Mizell-Nelson

Assistant Professor

Contact Information

Office Hours: M, 5:00-6:00 pm; Tu-Th, 10:00-11:00; 12:45-1:30 and by appointment
Office Location: 191 Education Building
Phone: (504) 280-6879
Email Address: mmizelln@uno.edu

Educational Background

PhD, Tulane University, 2001

Research Interests

New Orleans, 20th century United States, Labor, new media, public history, oral history, Louisiana

Background

A New Orleans native born in Saro Mayo Hospital, he first became interested in the city’s history while conversing with older residents on the city’s transit system. The school transit pass unveiled the community and neighborhood histories overlooked by scholars who for decades privileged the city’s colonial, antebellum, and architectural histories. Stories of everyday life in this extraordinary city occupy his interests as a teacher, scholar, and video documentarian.

In1992, Mizell-Nelson started working with his students to record the histories of their families, neighborhoods, churches, and other institutions they deem significant. Each year his students contribute hundreds of additional oral histories and new media projects that help to document a singular city. His scholarly articles include “Treated as Lepers: The Patient-led Reform Movement at the National Leprosarium, 1931-1946” in Louisiana History and a forthcoming chapter in Civic Engagement:  “Not Since the 1930s: The Documentary Impulse post-Katrina.” He is completing a book titled Jim Crow New Orleans: Public Space and Private Lives.

His video documentary work includes Streetcar Stories, a one-hour documentary, on the social history of New Orleans streetcars. It has been broadcast on 100+ PBS affiliates and screened at the American Film Institute Festival and the Museum of Modern Art, New York City. Documentary shorts include Slave Trade Scholar, a walking tour of the city’s slave market districts led by Walter Johnson, and Vintage Drag, featuring the female impersonators who once performed at the Club My-oh-My.  He presently oversees the collection building process for the Hurricane Digital Memory Bank, an online database documenting the impact of Katrina and Rita upon the Gulf Coast www.hurricanearchive.org

Mizell-Nelson is likely best known for having uncovered the definitive evidence behind the origins of the poor boy sandwich < http://www.poboyfest.com/history>.  Join fans of the sandwich on Oak Street in the city’s Carrollton neighborhood the third Sunday in November to both celebrate and devour the city’s most beloved form of working class culinary history. His wife, Catherine, is a naturalized New Orleanian, and they are both fortunate to be able to raise their children, Arlo and Keely, in Orleans Parish.

New Orleans History student research ( more>> )

Courses Taught

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