Dr. Charles Chamberlain Historian, Louisiana State Museum

Since July 2002, Charles Chamberlain has served as the historian of the Louisiana State Museum. In the 1980s, he began playing music professionally in a variety of dance bands and orchestras in Austin, Texas and Portland, Oregon. After moving to New Orleans in 1990, he graduated with a Ph.D. in U.S history from Tulane University in 1999, while also working for many years at Tulane’s Hogan Jazz Archive. In 2002, the University of Georgia Press published his book Victory At Home: Manpower and Race in the American South during World War II, and he also has published several recent articles on the social history of jazz and jazz artists in Louisiana. He currently plays guitar with the New Leviathan Oriental Foxtrot Orchestra.

Published Works:

• "What Would Louis Do? Lessons from Louis Armstrong in a Post-Katrina World,” Louisiana Cultural Vistas (Winter 2005-2006)
• Victory at Home: Manpower and Race in the American South during World War Two, 1939-1945 (University of Georgia Press, 2003)
• "The Goodson Sisters: The Essential Role of Female Pianists in New Orleans Jazz,” Louisiana Cultural Vistas, Fall 2002 “
• "The Goodson Sisters: Women Pianists and the Function of Gender in the Jazz Age,” The Jazz Archivist. vol. 15 (2001)

Kevin Fontenot Instructor and Doctoral Student Tulane University

Kevin Fontenot teaches Louisiana and US History in Tulane's School of Continuing Education. His dissertation is a biographical study of the life of Louisiana governor and country music star Jimmie H. Davis.

Fontenot has published many articles including articles and reviews in The Jazz Archivist, Louisiana History, Journal of Southern History, and the South Carolina Historical Quarterly. He has also presented papers at several major academic conferences including the Louisiana Historical Association, the Popular Culture Association, and the International Country Music Conference.

Some of Fontenot's public lectures include speaking at the National World War II Musuem, Auburn University at Montgomery, and Northwestern Louisiana State University.

Published Works

• Country Music's Confederate Grandfather: Henry C. Gilliland; Country Music Annual
• Dear Ivan: Country Music Perspectives on the Soviet Union and the Cold War; Country Music Goes to War.