The Center for Louisiana Studies is the press of the University of Louisiana, with the mission to promote and facilitate scholarly research on any and all aspects of Louisiana studies. With over 100 titles currently in print, the Center is the largest publisher of exclusively Louisiana-related books in the world. It also serves as a research facility and archival repository.
Founded in 1973, the Center for Louisiana Studies grew around the University's copies of the Louisiana Colonial Records Collection. Begun in 1967, the Collection attempts to draw together available microfilmed copies of any and all primary source records focused on the discovery, exploration, settlement, and development of the Mississippi Valley between 1682 and 1803. To date, over 1,000,000 pages of archival material have been photo-duplicated from French archives; over 1.5 million pages copied from Spanish archives; over 20,000 pages of documentary evidence from British depositories; and over 165,000 pages of material have been collected from various Louisiana sources. Together with the Library of Congress and the University of Memphis, the Center is one of only three repositories for the colonial documents of France in the United States.
Another important impetus for the founding of the Center was the creation of The University of Southwestern Louisiana History Series (U.S.L. being the former name of The University of Louisiana). Glenn Conrad, the director of the Center from 1973 to 2003, edited the U.S.L. History Series from its establishment in 1970 until the fifteenth and final title in 1985. This Series established the Center for Louisiana Studies as a significant regional publishing center.
The Center received a significant boost with the publication of The Courthouses of Louisiana and The Cajuns: Essays on their History and Culture. Although sales of these titles were modest by publishing standards, that small amount nevertheless allowed the Center to continuously expand the quality of its product
Other important series from the Center were the U.S.L. Architecture Series, which followed from the Courthouses of Louisiana (1978); the Louisiana Life Series, covering the rich cultures of South Louisiana, including such diverse topics as Cajun culture, jazz, the Acadian diaspora, New Orleans cemeteries, Voodoo, and others; and the Louisiana Purchase Bicentennial Series in Louisiana History, the most ambitious Louisiana-related publication project ever undertaken by any publisher. The Center has also published many titles on Louisiana genealogy and civil records.
The Center also comprises The Center for Cultural and Ecotourism, and is partnered with The Center for Acadian and Creole Folklore.
The Center for Louisiana Studies also operates the UL Press, a university press that is currently an introductory member of the Association of University Presses. [1]
Cajun cuisine is a style of cooking developed by the Cajun–Acadians who were deported from Acadia to Louisiana during the 18th century and who incorporated West African, French and Spanish cooking techniques into their original cuisine.
The Acadians are an ethnic group descended from the French who settled in the New France colony of Acadia during the 17th and 18th centuries.
The Cajuns, also known as Louisiana Acadians, are a Louisiana French ethnicity mainly found in the U.S. state of Louisiana and surrounding Gulf Coast states.
Creole peoples may refer to various ethnic groups around the world. The term's meaning exhibits regional variations, often sparking debate.
Evangeline Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 32,350. The parish seat is Ville Platte.
The French language is spoken as a minority language in the United States. Roughly 2.1 million Americans over the age of five reported speaking the language at home in a federal 2010 estimate, making French the fourth most-spoken language in the nation behind English, Spanish, and Chinese.
Acadiana, also known as the Cajun Country, is the official name given to the French Louisiana region that has historically contained much of the state's Francophone population.
The University of Louisiana at Lafayette is a public research university in Lafayette, Louisiana. It has the largest enrollment within the nine-campus University of Louisiana System and the second-largest enrollment in Louisiana, behind only Louisiana State University. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity".
Justin Elmer Wilson was a Southern American chef and humorist known for his brand of Cajun-inspired cuisine, humor and storytelling.
Louisiana Creoles are a Louisiana French ethnic group descended from the inhabitants of colonial Louisiana before it became a part of the United States during the period of both French and Spanish rule. They share cultural ties such as the traditional use of the French, Spanish, and Creole languages and predominant practice of Catholicism.
The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns are the athletic teams of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The college has been competing athletically since 1901. The Ragin' Cajuns compete in NCAA Division I, fielding 16 varsity teams.
Carl Anthony Brasseaux is an American historian and educator. He specialized in French Colonial North America, particularly of Louisiana and the Cajun people. He helped to pioneer the field of Cajun history, and his published works on this topic represent the first serious, in-depth examination of the history of the ethnic group.
Glenn Russell Conrad was an American historian, professor, and author. He is known for his research of south Louisiana culture, as well as an expert on archival studies, nineteenth-century European history, and the history of colonial Louisiana. He taught at Southern Colorado State and the University of Southwestern Louisiana from 1958 until 1991, and serving as the director of the Center of Louisiana Studies at University of Southern Louisiana from 1973 until 1993.
The flag of Acadiana represents the Acadian (Cajun) ethnic region of southern Louisiana. It consists of two equal horizontal bands of blue (top) and red (bottom) bearing three white fleurs de lis and a gold castle, respectively, and a white isosceles triangle at the hoist, within which is a gold five-pointed star. It was designed in 1965 and officially adopted July 5, 1974. The flag is referred to as the Acadiana flag or Cajun flag.
Attakapas Parish, a former parish (county) in southern Louisiana, was one of the twelve parishes in the Territory of Orleans, newly defined by the United States federal government following its Louisiana Purchase in 1803. At its core was the Poste des Attakapas trading post, which developed as the current city of St. Martinville.
John Laudun is a folklorist, essayist, and professor at University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
The Sabine Shoe is the name of the bronze shoe trophy that was awarded to the winner of the annual college football game between the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in Lafayette, Louisiana and the Lamar Cardinals of Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. The Sabine Shoe trophy was first awarded in 1968 by the University of Southwestern Louisiana's chapter of Alpha Phi Omega fraternity. The name of the bronze rivalry trophy was derived from the Sabine River that forms part of the Texas–Louisiana border. USL defeated Lamar in the 1978 edition of the rivalry game, but the Ragin' Cajuns were not awarded the trophy as it had vanished. The Sabine Shoe trophy now sits in at trophy case in the Ragin' Cajun Athletic Complex in Lafayette.
The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns football program is a college football team that represents the University of Louisiana at Lafayette at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) level as a member of the Sun Belt Conference. Since 1971, the team has played its home games at Cajun Field in Lafayette, Louisiana. Michael Desormeaux has served as Louisiana's head coach since 2021.
Jean Duet "Dewey" Segura was an American folk musician. He and his brother Edier Segura formed the duo known as the "Segura Brothers". The duo created some of the earliest commercially recorded Cajun music in the late 1920s.
Louisiana French is an umbrella term for the dialects and varieties of the French language spoken traditionally by French Louisianians in colonial Lower Louisiana. As of today Louisiana French is primarily used in the state of Louisiana, specifically in its southern parishes.