Nathan Rabalais
- Faculty
- Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies
- 337-482-6816
- nathan.rabalais@louisiana.edu
- Griffin Hall, Room 461
Biography
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 recently served as a Fellow of the Center for Louisiana Studies from 2020-2025.
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.
Education
Ph.D., Tulane Ë÷Äá×ÊÔ´Íø
Doctorat en lettres et langues, Université de Poitiers
Student Research/Collaboration
- French and Creole Louisiana
- Acadia
- Francophone North America
- Oral Tradition
- Popular Culture
- Music
- Digital Humanities
- Environmental Humanities