BIOGRAPHY
Marcia
Gaudet is Dr. Doris Meriwether/BORSF Professor
of English and Department Head of English at the University
of Louisiana at Lafayette. She has a B.S. from Louisiana State University,
M.Ed. from Auburn University, and Ph.D. in English from University of
Southwestern Louisiana (now UL Lafayette). She is the author of Tales
From the Levee: The Folklore of St. John the Baptist Parish and
co-author of Porch Talk with Ernest Gaines: Conversations on the
Writer's Craft. Recent publications include editing and compiling, with Reggie Young, Mozart and Leadbelly: Stories and Essays by Ernest J. Gaines (2005), Carville: Remembering Leprosy in America (2004), and co-editing (with James McDonald)
a new edition of their collection of readings on Louisiana folklore
and culture entitled Mardi Gras, Gumbo, and Zydeco.
Marcia Gaudet has
published many articles on Louisiana folklore and literature in national
and international journals. Her recent articles include “Ribbon Pulls in Wedding Cakes: Tracing a New Orleans Area Tradition,” Folklore 117 (April 2006): 87-96; “Cajun Communities,” “Mardi Gras,” “New Orleans,” Encyclopedia of American Folklife (Forthcoming, 2006);
“Carville: Remembering Leprosy in America,” Louisiana Cultural Vistas 16.1 (Spring 2005): 52-65, 95 (Excerpt from Carville, with illustrations from the Abbott Laboratories Collection); “The Influence of Multi-Art Forms on the Fiction of Ernest J. Gaines:
An Interview with Ernest Gaines,” Interdisciplinary Humanities 20.1 (2003): 76-92 (with Darrell Bourque);
“Catholic Palimpsest: The Louisiana Stories of Andre Dubus,” Xavier Review 23:1, n.s. (2003): 44-57; "The World
Downside Up: Mardi Gras at Carville" in Journal of American
Folklore (1998); "Talking With Ernest J. Gaines: Religion,
Spirituality, Belief" in Louisiana Literature (1999), "Contemporary
Legend as Literature: Robert Olen Butler’s ‘A Ghost Story’"
in Border Crossings: Legend, Literature, Mass Media, and Cultural
Ephemera (2000); and "Mardi Gras Chic-a-la-Pie: Asserting
Creole Identity Through Festive Play" (Journal of American Folklore, 2001). She was editor of Louisiana Folklore Miscellany,
the journal of the Louisiana Folklore Society, from 1995-2000. She was
the curator for a Louisiana Center for the Book Exhibit, "Ernest J.
Gaines, Louisiana Writer of the Year," State Library of Louisiana, Baton
Rouge, October 2000.
Gaudet won the Chicago Folklore Prize 2005, for Carville: Remembering Leprosy in America (Prize awarded annually by University of Chicago for the best book on folklore published worldwide)
and serves as Grant Administrator, Board of Regents Ph.D. Fellowship in English and Folklore (2005-2009; $80,000). In addition, she has served as consultant on several projects and documentaries, as an evaluator of manuscripts for three journals and two presses, and is member of many professional organizations including the Modern Language Association, American Folklore Society, South Central Modern Language Association, International Society for Contemporary Legend Research, Louisiana Folklore Society, and Society for the Study of SOuthern Literature. Gaudet served as the American
Folklore Society Liaison to the Modern Language Association from 1992-1998,
and she served as co-chair of the 1995 American Folklore Society Meeting
in Lafayette. In March 2002, she co-chaired the local arrangements
committee for the national meeting in Lafayette of the Society for the
Study of Southern Literature. Gaudet is currently serving as Vice-chair
of the Louisiana Folklife Commission. In 1998, she received the UL Lafayette
Foundation’s Distinguished Professor Award.
