Publications

BOOKS:

* Creating the Big Easy: New Orleans and the Emergence of Modern Tourism, 1918-1945 (University of Georgia Press, 2006). The book examines the birth of the modern mass tourism industry in New Orleans. As local boosters struggled to adjust to Prohibition and the closure of the Storyville red-light district during the First World War, tourism became a vital crutch to the local leisure economy. The rise of automobile travel further inspired coordinated marketing strategies. Local business leaders soon fostered historic preservation of the French Quarter and the introduction of Carnival throws during Mardi Gras. The onset of the Great Depression further left a cash-strapped city eager to cultivate vital sales taxes linked to the tourism trade.

To purchase, see:  Georgia Press / Barnes & Noble / Amazon.

 * Dixie Emporium: Consumerism, Tourism, and Foodways in the American South (University Georgia Press, 2008). The collection of essays examines the intersection of consumer practices, travel, and culinary culture within the American South from the early nineteenth century to the present. Top scholars in the field unpack the meanings of various regional attractions and staples. Contributors include Fitzhugh Brundage, Karen Cox, Glenn Eskew, John Giggie, Patrick Huber, Aaron Ketchell, Nicole King, Ted Ownby, Eric Plaag, John Shelton Reed, Mary Rizzo, and Carolyn Thomas. Their essays tackle everything from Krispy Kreme donuts and the Baltimore Hon to the Horny Hillbilly souvenir and South of the Border’s Pedro icon.

To purchase, see: Georgia Press / Barnes & Noble /  Amazon.

* Faith in Bikinis: Politics and Leisure in the Coastal South since the Civil War (University of Georgia Press, 2014). The book examines the rise of beach tourism in Virginia Beach (Virginia), Myrtle Beach (South Carolina), Panama City (Florida), Biloxi and Gulfport (Mississippi), and Galveston (Texas). The tourism industries of these beach communities challenged the conservative values and cotton-oriented economies of their various southern states.  Chapters include: 1.) Beach Resorts and the Rise of the Sunbelt; 2.) Mosquitoes, Hurricanes, and the Environmental Movement; 3.) Race, Tanning, and the Civil Rights Movement; 4.) Femininity, Religion, and the Sexual Revolution; 5.) Moonshine, Gambling, and the Slow Death of Prohibition. The Florida Historical Society awarded Faith in Bikinis the Rembert Patrick Award for best scholarly book on a Florida-related topic in 2015.

To purchase, see: Georgia Press / Barnes & Noble / Amazon.

BOOK CHAPTERS:

*”Feast of the Mau Mau: Christianity, Conjure, and the Origins of Soul Food,” Dethroning the Deceitful Pork Chop: Rethinking African American Foodways from Slavery to Obama (University of Arkansas Press, 2015), Jennifer Jensen Wallach, ed. The chapter examines the largely overlooked role of conjure practices and beliefs in influencing African American culinary practices.

To purchase, see: Barnes & Noble / Amazon.

*”Food Tourism,” The Routledge History of American Foodways (Routledge, 2015), Jennifer Jensen Wallach and  Michael Wise, ed. The chapter chronicles the rise of food-related tourism in the United States from its beginnings in the nineteenth century to the  competitive culinary tours of today.

To purchase, see: Barnes & Noble / Amazon.

*”Dead But Delightful: Tourism and Memory in New Orleans Cemeteries,” Destination Dixie: Tourism and Southern History (University Press of Florida, 2014), Karen Cox, ed. The chapter recounts the development of New Orleans’s famous cemeteries, including St. Louis #1, Metairie Cemetery,  and Holt Cemetery, and how these have attracted travelers from the nineteenth century to the present.

To purchase, see: Barnes & Noble / Amazon.

*”No Time for Muses: The Research Excellence Framework and the Pursuit of Mediocrity,” Why Academic Freedom Matters (Civitas, 2016), Joanna Williams and Cheryl Hudson, eds. The chapter unpacks the fundamental problems with the United Kingdom’s  Research Excellence Framework and contextualizes this bureaucratic practice within the long history of imperial decline.

To access, click the following link: No Time for Muses.

ARTICLES:

*”The Triumph of Epicure: A History of New Orleans Culinary Tourism,” Southern Quarterly (2009), vol. 46, no.3. The article traces the relationship between tourism and foodways in New Orleans from the nineteenth century to the present. Written in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the article examines manifestations of “New Orleans” cuisine throughout the world and its meanings within the global culinary scene.

*”Through a Purple (Green and Gold) Haze: New Orleans Mardi Gras in the American Imagination,” Southern Cultures (2008), vol. 14, no. 2. The article explores the development of New Orleans Mardi Gras and its influence on popular culture throughout the United States. Written in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the article examines the idea of New Orleans Mardi Gras within the American mind.

*”‘A Woman of Boundless Energy‘: Elizebeth Werlein and Her Times,” Louisiana History (2005), vol. 46, no. 1. The article is a brief biography of Elizebeth Werlein, the pioneering film censor and preservationist who lived in New Orleans during the interwar period.

*”‘Always in Costume and Mask‘: Lyle Saxon and New Orleans Tourism,” Louisiana History (2001), vol. 42, no.1. The article analyzes Lyle Saxon, both as an individual author of such books as Fabulous New Orleans and Old Louisiana as well as the director of the Louisiana Writers Project. In these various roles, Saxon packaged New Orleans and Louisiana for tourists’ consumption during the interwar period.