Negotiating the Mainstream:
The Cajuns and Creoles of Louisiana
9:00 a.m., Monday, Aug. 28, 2006
Webster Hall Auditorium
Admission: free

This presentation examined the history and development of Louisiana’s native French-speaking communities. It addressed the social and cultural development of Louisiana’s Cajuns and Creoles, as well as the linguistic and pedagogical issues involved in the effort to preserve their versions of the French language, especially since the establishment of the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana in 1968, which launched the so-called French renaissance movement.

Dr. Barry Jean Ancelet is a professor of folklore and Francophone studies in the Department of Modern Languages, which he currently chairs, at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He is a native Louisiana French-speaking Cajun and has given papers and published articles and books on various aspects of Louisiana’s Cajun and Creole cultures and languages. He has a doctorate in Études Créoles (anthropology and linguistics) from the Université de Provence (Aix-Marseille I). Dr. Ancelet is a member of France’s Palmes Académiques and Quebec’s Ordre des Francophones d’Amérique, and hosts the “Rendez-vous des Cadiens,” a weekly live radio show from the Liberty Theater in Eunice, La.