Carte du fleuve Saint Louis ou Mississipy dix lieues au dessus de la Nouvelle Orleans jusqu'a son embouchure, ca. 1723, Newberry Library, Chicago

Tulane University’s Newcomb Art Department is pleased to host Bvlbancha Rising: Louisiana Landmarks and Climate Change Challenges, a 1-week NEH summer institute for higher education faculty and humanities professionals, in June 2025. Participants attend one 1-week session, either June 2-6, 2025, or June 9-13, 2025. Dr. Adrian Anagnost and Dr. Leslie Geddes will lead this interdisciplinary institute, centered on site visits to local cultural landmarks where questions of ecological resiliency are current.

Higher education and humanities professionals will explore cultural landmarks in coastal Louisiana that are imperiled by aspects of climate change, including sea level rise, threats to biodiversity, and the activities of extractive industries. Through readings and discussions, as well as guest lectures by artists, writers, scholars, filmmakers, and community activists, we will also explore the ways that contemporary practitioners are working today to preserve disappearing cultural landmarks in situ, and through other cultural forms.


The institute’s participants (20 per session) will pursue a program of site visits, workshops, and discussion exploring interdisciplinary approaches to place-based humanities, especially by artists and culture bearers. Topics include the displacement of the riverside African American Fazendeville community to create the Chalmette Battlefield War of 1812 historic site; colonial and modern histories partially submerged in the changing waterscapes at the mouth of the Mississippi River; the role of ecological change for Houma craft traditions; Ishak language revitalization and traditional foodways; the effects of industrial development and land use on historical African American burial grounds near New Orleans; and contemporary artistic responses to these histories. We welcome scholars, advanced graduate students, and humanities professionals including museum and historic site staff and preservationists. The institute will consider themes including:

• Overlooked Landmarks — Hidden, Displaced, Lost, & Threatened

• Contemporary Art and Place-based Histories

• Questioning “Landmarks”, Valuing Unofficial Sites

• Place-based Heritage Practices

• Working with Collections for Research and Teaching

• Visualizing Climate Resiliency

• Digital Mapping in Teaching and Research

• Temporality and Geological Timescales

Drawing on lessons from Louisiana, we envision each week will bring together scholars and humanities professionals who are thinking about climate change, cultural heritage, and place-based inquiry in diverse geographies. We warmly encourage applicants from a variety of disciplines as well as those who may not yet be as familiar with Louisiana and the Gulf Coast.

Twenty participants will be accepted per session (for a total of 40 overall). 20% of the available spaces are reserved for early career faculty (three or fewer years as higher education faculty), humanities professionals, and/or non-tenure track faculty and 10% of the available spaces for advanced graduate students (individuals who have reached candidacy in a doctoral program or are in the final year of a terminal degree program).

• Bvlbancha Rising takes place (Session 1) June 2-6 and (Session 2) June 9-13. These sessions are identical in content, please note your preference for date in your application.

• Applications are due March 5, 2025. Applicants will be notified of their status by April 2, 2025 and accepted applicants must confirm they will be attending by April 16, 2025.

• Each participant will receive a stipend of $1,300. The stipend is intended to help cover all expenses. Stipends are taxable as income.