Katrina Projects

About one-third of our faculty members lost their homes in the flooding, and a few are still living in temporary housing. While the greatest manmade and natural disaster in US history continues to affect faculty on a personal level, department members are also working to both research and document the effects of the hurricane on the region. Faculty member stories published in Historically Speaking can be read online: Historically Speaking

Creating an Online Hurricane Database The most visible department project is the Hurricane Digital Memory Bank, a regional database designed to collect not only the stories, emails, and oral histories, but also the digital photos, audio, and video relating to Katrina, Rita and Wilma. The Digital Memory Bank is a partnership between the University of New Orleans's department of history and George Mason University’s Center for History and New Media. It is funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The project invites individuals to record their stories via the project’s Web site, http://www.hurricanearchive.org, or its phone voicemail system, (504) 208-3883. Special collections include photographs from the Smithsonian National Museum of American History and the Louisiana State Museum as well as the United States Coast Guard. Web site visitors can use the interactive map to scan neighborhoods, cities and entire regions affected by the storms — all the way from East Texas to Alabama. The stories, images and photos provide a virtual tour of the region and illustrate the scope of destruction for those not able to see it firsthand. For more information, visit the Web site at: www.hurricanearchive.org If you would like assistance in recording or archiving your experience, please e-mail Michael Mizell-Nelson: mmizelln@uno.edu Rebuilding Europe, Rebuilding the Gulf Coast Department Chair Günter Bischof soon after the flooding of the city began to compare and contrast New Orleans post-Katrina rebuilding and European post-World War II reconstruction efforts. In April 2006, Dr. Bischof, along with Dr. Allan Millett, Director of the UNO Eisenhower Center for American Studies, and The National World War II Museum organized the following symposium. For a summary of the day’s proceedings, please select the following file: Lessons from the Past: Postwar German and European Reconstruction and the Rebuilding of Post-Katrina New Orleans and the Gulf Coast Historians Interpreting Katrina The History New Network hosts a Katrina forum featuring many different historians' interpretations of the storm and its aftermath. Dr. Bischof contributes regular updates regarding conditions in New Orleans. His and many other essays can be read via the following link: Historians and Katrina to top .