Nathan Rabalais

Nathan Rabalais is the Joseph P. Montiel Endowed Professor of Francophone Studies. He specializes in the folklore, literature, and popular culture of francophone North America, particularly in Louisiana and Acadian communities of maritime Canada. He currently serves as a Fellow of the Center for Louisiana Studies and Editor in Chief of the scholarly journal, Études Francophones.

His most recent articles and feature-length documentary Finding Cajun (2019) focus on the intersection of language and identity in Louisiana and the Acadian diaspora. With the support of an NEH fellowship, he recently published Folklore Figures of French and Creole Louisiana (2021) with LSU Press. Nathan is also active in creative writing; his poetry can be in a number of literary journals as well as in his book of poetry, Le Hantage: un ouvrage de souvenance (2018) with Éditions Tintamarre. His current projects include a chapter on meme culture and Acadian/Cajun identity in the edited volume Repenser l’Acadie dans le monde; a book project on the folklore of Avoyelles Parish; and an ecocritical approach to the intersection of identity and food in Louisiana.

B.A. in Music (Theory/Comp. and Guitar performance), 2007
University of Louisiana at Lafayette

M.A. in French, 2011
University of Louisiana at Lafayette

Ph.D. in French Studies, 2015
Tulane University

Doctorat en lettres et langues, 2015
Université de Poitiers

Dr. Rabalais's research interests include:

• French and Creole in Louisiana
• Literature and culture of Acadia
• North American French
• Folklore
• Translation
• Creative writing

Opportunities for Student Research/Collaboration:

Multiple opportunities are available through publications with graduate students through co-writing articles and regular opportunities for collaboration on our two journals:

• Études Francophones (a scholarly journal)
• Feux Follets (our creative writing journal in French)

Books 

• Folklore Figures of French and Creole Louisiana 2021  Louisiana State University Press, Single-author monograph Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2021
• Le Hantage: un ouvrage de souvenance 2018 Creative work, original French-language poetry Shreveport: Éditions Tintamarre, 2018 

Peer-Reviewed Publications

• “Elizabeth Brandon (1913-2002): de Volkovysk à Vermilion”, for Rabaska journal, vol. 21, 2023: 177-185.
• “Franco-Louisianais: Quels contours?,” co-written with Sara Le Menestrel, in Études francophones, 35 (2023 for fall 2022): vii-xxii. 
• “Franco-louisianais ? Identifications plurielles et déclinaisons contemporaines,” special issue of Études Francophones, guest edited with Sara Le Menestrel, issue 35, fall 2022 (published in February 2023 by UL Press).
• Three articles in the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities encyclopedia 64 Parishes: “Louisiana Folktales,” “Cajun Folklore,” and “Creole Folklore.” Published on February 9, 2023.
• “Introduction” co-written with Emma Harlet  Mercier, Alfred. L’Habitation Saint-Ybars. Shreveport: Éditions Tintamarre, 2022. (pp. 7-28).
• “L’identité dans la littérature franco-louisianaise : une troisième ère ?”, Jonathan Livernois (ed.), Écrire pour gouverner, écrire pour contester, Québec, Presses Université Laval, coll.  « CEFAN », 2021: 7-28. 
• “Francophone Louisiana’s Cultural Flows/Les flux culturels de la Louisiane francophone”, co-written with Clint Bruce and Robin White”. Introduction to special issue. Quebec Studies, 70 (2020): 3-6.
• “Portrait: Barry Ancelet, un ambassadeur de l’Acadie tropicale” Rabaska, 18 (2020) : 231-244.
• “La Fête-Dieu du Vermilion en Louisiane” Rabaska, 17 (2019): 189–196.
• “Représentations de Jean-le-Sot dans le contexte francophone” Port Acadie, 31 (2018): 7-22.
• “February is no bastard child: Jules Choppin’s Entretien sur les 12 mois de l’année” Louisiana Folklife Journal, vol. 39 (2015 for 2018): 23-32.
• “Roquelaure: A New Perspective on Louisiana Folklore’s Master Thief” Louisiana Folklore Miscellany 27 (2017): 29-52.
• “Acadie(s) divergente(s): langue, identité et poésie en Louisiane et au Canada maritime” Sites, Contemporary French and Francophone Studies, 21:4 (2017): 431-439.
• “Le Grand réveil acadien: une nouvelle mise en relief de la présence acadienne en Louisiane” Rabaska, 14 (2016): 7-22.
• “Masques of Conquest: A Comparative Analysis of Lescarbot’s ‘Le Théâtre de Neptune en la Nouvelle France’ and Chapman’s ‘Memorable Masque’”.  Equinoxes, Brown University, Providence, RI 

Poetry

• “Congrès à mon gré (Hub City duet)” and “Coucher de soleil sur Sunset” Feux follets: Chemins et cheminements, 2020, University of Louisiana at Lafayette (pp. 29 and 70)
• “Acadies parallèles” Ancrages, 21 (2019), special issue Acadie24
• “Jean sait rien”, “A is for Pomme”, and “Krewe de vous” Feux follets: Relever, 2019, University of Louisiana at Lafayette (pp. 15, 36-37, and 69)
• “Sors ta langue” and “Elle est partie, elle est partout”  L'Année francophone internationale, 27 (2019): 104-105.

Documentary Film

• Finding Cajun, dir. Nathan Rabalais 2019 Currently distributed by Amazon Prime and Louisiana Public Broadcasting

NON-PEER-REVIEWED

• “The Life and Work of Elizabeth Brandon” 64 Parishes magazine, Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, Winter 2023, pp. 34-40.
• Back cover texts for recent publications such as Bayou Zen (David Cheramie, Shreveport: Tintamarre, 2022) and Parcours louisianais (ed. Evelyne Bornier and Meg Marshall, Lafayette: UL Press, 2022)
• “La Louisiane” - a brief overview of the French-language literary production of Louisiana for the digital library Bibliothèque des Amériques sponsored by the Centre de la Francophonie des Amériques. 
• Guillorel, Eva, Patrice Nicolas, Nathan Rabalais. “Du patrimoine musical aux mèmes sur Internet. Blog: Repenser l'Acadie dans le monde.  https://www.repenserlacadie.com/post/guillorel-nicolas-rabalais-du-patrimoine-musical-aux-m%C3%A8mes-sur-internet
• “Le français louisianais : mythes et mouvements

• Advance Faculty Award Grant for new audio studio in Modern Languages ($5,000)
• Friends of the Humanities grant for Louisiana French oral history project ($750) 2023
• 1-month Faculty residency at Université de Poitiers 2023
• Faculty Research Travel Grant ($1,000) 2023
• Outstanding Graduate Master’s Mentor Award 2023
• Friends of the Humanities grant for Louisiana literature course development ($300) 2023
• Friends of the Humanities grant for Louisiana French course development ($1,000) 2022
• Jamie and Thelma Guilbeau Special Collections Research Fellowship ($500) 2022
• Author of the month – Centre de la Francophonie des Amériques 2019
• Richard Guidry Cajun and Creole Language Fund ($1,320) 2019
• Director's Choice Award at Cinema on the Bayou for Finding Cajun documentary 2019
• NEH Fellowship (12 months) – $50,400 2018
• Summer faculty research grant (William & Mary) 2016 and 2017
• Fulbright-Chateaubriand Dissertation Fellowship (8-month award) 2014-2015
• Selected for an exchange program between Tulane University
• and the École normale supérieure, Paris (declined) 2014-2015
• Travel grant, Department of French and Italian, Tulane University 2013
• Research grants, Modern Languages Department, UL Lafayette 2010-2011
• Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship, Strasbourg, France 2007-08
• Theodore Presser Award, monetary award ($4,000) for excellence in music studies 2007
• Outstanding Graduate, College of the Arts, University of Louisiana at Lafayette 2007