Southeastern NEWS

                                                       Southeastern Louisiana University
                                           Public Information Office
                                           publicinfo@selu.edu
                                           SLU 10880, Hammond, LA 70402
                                           504/549-2341/fax 504-549-2061
    Date: 03/8/00
      Contact:                           Scott P.Nunez  
     
SUMMER  INSTITUTE ON LOUISIANA CULTURE SEEKS APPLICANTS 
     HAMMOND -- Louisiana culture is a popular topic even among Louisiana natives.
Southeastern Louisiana University professor Thomas Fick plans to explore that topic in a
Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Summer Teacher Institute, "Region, Race and
Identity."
     The institute is open to Louisiana kindergarten through high school public, private and
parochial school teachers in  language arts, social studies, art, history, music and related fields.
The deadline for applications is April 16.  Twenty-five teachers will be selected to attend the
institute June 5-29 on the Southeastern campus. 
     Selected participants will receive a $500 stipend and three hours of graduate credit. 
Applications are available on-line at www.selu.edu/Academics/Facult/tfick/LEH or can be
requested by calling 504-549-2104.  In addition, applicants must submit a one-page letter of
application describing ways the institute may contribute to their professional development and
teaching goals. 
     "Louisiana owes its vibrant and distinctive culture to the interplay of many ethnic
groups," said Fick. "The institute will give us a forum for exploring the contributions of various
groups to Louisiana's literature, history, art, and music." Participants will read and discuss some
of the great Louisiana writers like Ernest Gaines, Kate Chopin, George Washington Cable, and
Southeastern's own Tim Gautreaux.  "It will be exciting to discover how these writers deal with
the ethnic and cultural gumbo that makes Louisiana unique.".
     Participants will also have a chance to meet with four nationally known scholars and
artists. Brenda Osbey, author of  "All Saints: New and Selected Poems" and winner of the 1998
National Book Award, will read her poetry and discuss the history of  New Orleans' Treme

                              -more-

LEH Race-Region institute/ADD ONE

district. Luther Gray, a musician, musicologist, and founder of the group that succeeded in
having Congo Square placed on the Register of Historic Places, will discuss and demonstrate the
African, Caribbean, and Native American influences on Louisiana's culture and music. Sybil
Kein, a scholar, musician, and poet whose volume of Creole poetry, "Gumbo People," has been
recently reissued in an expanded edition, will talk about Creole culture, and Southeastern
Scholar-in-Residence Jerome Salomone, former dean of the College of Humanities,  will help
participants explore the Cajun contribution to Louisiana.
     For more information on the institute contact Fick at 504-549-2104 or by email at
tfick@selu.edu. 
                             -SLU-
Press release available online at www.selu.edu/NewsEvents/PublicInfoOffice/newsp00.htm