SGER: Loss and Survival: Culture, Community, and Family Following Hurricane Katrina

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How human beings respond to abrupt and profound loss varies. This project will investigate that variation among the 400-500 former residents of New Orleans' Ninth Ward who now are housed at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver, Colorado. The Ninth Ward was 98 per cent African American, about half of very limited means and about half well enough off to own a home. Earlier research by other social scientistis has found that some less affluent African American families sometimes cope with material scarcity by depending on extended families for sharing resources such as food, income, childcare, and eldercare; in contrast, middle class African American families were found often to be more autonomous. This project will look at representative families from each group and compare their coping strategies. The researchers also plan a future project that will follow the families over the longer run.The project employs a team consisting of one anthropologist (with extensive research experience among African-descended populations in the Caribbean, who have similar social structure to African Americans); one sociologist (with extensive research experience among disaster victims); an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker; and a graduate student. They will film interviews with the refugees in their current situation; collect kinship information; and have the refugees keep written and audio diaries. This work will allow them to examine whether or not the predicted variability by class is in fact occurring as well as provide a baseline for future study. The project will contribute to the development of better social policies for helping displaced populations and to filling the large gaps in the social science literature on African American culture and social organization. The project also will provide an unusual opportunity for a graduate student to engage in urgent research.