Category: History

A Final Taste of New Orleans: PCAS/ACAS Day Four

Our final morning in New Orleans was spent exploring the things that local businesses had to offer, which was a wonderful end to our trip. After several busy days of attending conference sessions, exploring the city, and learning about the history and culture of New Orleans, it was nice to have a slower morning before leaving the city. Rather than rushing from one activity to another, we were able to take our time, enjoy breakfast together, and do some last-minute shopping before beginning the drive home.

Breakfast and Shopping

Written by Allie Plunk

For breakfast, we stopped by Café du Monde, which is well known for its beignets. Since Café du Monde is such a recognizable part of New Orleans, getting the opportunity to actually eat there felt like an important part of our final morning in the city. The line was much shorter than anticipated, so we were very quickly able to order and enjoy our beignets and cups of both hot and iced café au lait, a type of coffee served with milk.

The beignets were definitely worth the stop. Covered in powdered sugar, they were sweet, warm, and messy in the best possible way. There was something especially fitting about ending our time in New Orleans with a food that is so closely associated with the city. After spending the past few days learning about New Orleans through its history, literature, architecture, and culture, we were able to experience one of the city’s most recognizable foods for ourselves.

Following breakfast, we browsed through the French Market, where many of the shops are run by local businesses. The market gave us one final opportunity to experience the creativity and individuality of New Orleans before leaving. Instead of purchasing souvenirs from large chain stores, we were able to look through items made or sold by local artists and businesses. There was a little bit of everything, from artwork and photographs to jewelry, decorations, and other handmade goods.

I bought a deliciously scented lavender soap and two perfumes, while the other LEAP students bought various items such as photographs, illustrations, and jewelry. It was fun seeing what everyone chose because our purchases were all so different. In a way, the things we decided to take home became small reminders of our individual experiences in New Orleans.

Once we had shopped to our hearts’ content, we headed straight for Baton Rouge for a tour of the state capitol. Although it was difficult to leave New Orleans after everything we had experienced there, the Capitol gave us one more opportunity to learn about Louisiana before our trip came to an end.

Louisiana State Capitol

Written by Isis Hollis

A staple in every LEAP trip is visiting state capitols! The style, features, and experience are different for each building, but the Louisiana State Capitol proved to be filled with some of the most dramatic history.

Before getting into the history, there was the architecture carefully put together under Huey Long, who later served as both Senator and Governor. The building is 34 stories high, making it one of only a few skyscraper capitols in the United States. With 26 different types of stone, mostly marble, the Art Deco style is prominent throughout the building, with long columns and intricate designs. Bronze can be seen across many different surfaces on the inside, including the doors, floors, and walls.

The Capitol’s design immediately made it stand out from the other state capitols we have visited. Rather than the traditional appearance that many people associate with government buildings, the Louisiana State Capitol has a much more imposing and modern appearance. The height of the building alone makes it difficult to miss, and once inside, the amount of detail throughout the building makes it clear that the architecture was meant to communicate a sense of importance and power.

A mural painted by Jules Garron depicts the abundance of the earth surrounding Louisiana and fills the south and north walls of the main entrance. On either side of the elevators, large white marble cups with champagne-like bubbles serve as a token of friendship from the French. These details added another connection between the building and Louisiana’s larger cultural history, especially considering the strong French influence that can still be seen throughout the state.

As mentioned, the history of the Louisiana Capitol is filled with drama unlike many others. Huey Long, former Senator and Governor, was assassinated in what used to be the executive hallway of the building. On September 8, 1935, Governor Long was shot by Carl Weiss. The marble in the floor, columns, and walls surrounding the hall still contains the original bullet holes from the incident.

Seeing the location where such an important event happened made the history feel much more real. It is one thing to learn about a historical event in a textbook, but standing in the same place where it occurred gives the story an entirely different weight. The Capitol was not simply a beautiful building that we were touring; it was also a place where major events in Louisiana’s political history had actually taken place.

There is also, in the Senate chamber, what is known as the “pencil in the ceiling,” which is actually a shard of wood. The wood got there from a bombing that occurred in 1970. Ironically, the bombers, who placed the TNT near the box in the chamber, were from Texas. This was another example of how the Capitol seemed to have a story hidden around every corner. Even small details, such as a piece of wood stuck in the ceiling, could be connected to a much larger part of the state’s history.

We also learned about the unfortunate history surrounding Louisiana politics, as the state has consistently dealt with political corruption. Governor Long was nicknamed the “Kingfish,” and his controversial political career even inspired a movie about his corruption. Learning about these events provided an interesting contrast to the cultural experiences we had throughout the rest of our trip. New Orleans is often celebrated for its music, food, architecture, festivals, and unique cultural identity, but the history behind the state is much more complicated.

Despite this complicated history, Louisiana has kept its rich culture intact, creating a beautiful atmosphere that was further emphasized by the Capitol. The building itself seemed to represent many of the contradictions we encountered throughout our trip: beauty alongside violence, tradition alongside modernity, and celebration alongside a complicated past. Visiting the Capitol gave us one final opportunity to see how history continues to shape the places we visit.

Conclusion

After leaving Baton Rouge, our trip was officially coming to an end. What began with our arrival in New Orleans had taken us through conference presentations, discussions about literature and culture, historic sites, local businesses, food, and experiences that we could not have gotten from a classroom alone. Our final morning was therefore a fitting conclusion. We were able to enjoy the local culture one last time, take home a few pieces of New Orleans with us, and end our trip by learning more about the history of Louisiana.

Although we were leaving the city, the experiences from the trip gave us plenty to bring home with us. From the conversations we had at the conference to the places we visited and the things we learned along the way, the trip showed us how much can be learned when we step outside of the classroom and experience these subjects firsthand. New Orleans was more than just the location of our conference. It became another part of our education, and it was a memorable way to end our LEAP experience.

LEAPing into New Orleans Culture and Cuisine: PCAS/ACAS Conference Day Two

Exploring the Southern Gothic

Written by Ruthie Passmore

We started off the second day strong by attending our first session, which was about Southern Gothic Transformations and Reimaginings; the conversation was led by Chair Stephanie Graves, who was accompanied by Rachel Pittman, Anne Bertram, and Jennie Lightweis-Goff. We got to hear about Appalachian Gothic Cinema, Southern Gothic within social media, a piece discussing the film adaptation of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, and research discussing the differences between the three adaptations of Cape Fear.

First, Rachel Pittman presented her paper, “Deep in the Bone,” which explores Gothic themes in Appalachian literature and highlights the region’s historical economic lag. From her findings, I interpreted Appalachia in literature as fundamentally isolated and decaying, a key part of the Southern Gothic. I found it very interesting how literature seems to interact with the culture and folklore of a place with such a rich history.

Anne Bertram then discussed the impact of the Southern Gothic on popular culture. By sharing various TikTok videos, Bertram demonstrated how the genre is depicted online, highlighting artist Ethel Cain and the film Sinners as key reasons why it keeps growing. Additionally, she emphasized the irony that the vast majority of people interested in Southern Gothic online are young, teenage females from Russia, though the genre emphasizes its location in the South United States as a defining feature.

Moving forward, we heard from Jennie Lightweis-Goff, who covered John Berendt’s novel, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. She noted that the story takes place in Savannah, Georgia, where the main character Jim Williams kills Danny Hansford. Since this novel is based on a true story, it led her to discuss modern true crime, claiming that much of today’s true crime coverage is fraudulent, and that true crime capitalizes on tragedy itself, turning real loss into a profitable trend.

Finally, Chair Stephanie Graves shed light on the three different adaptations of Cape Fear, first examining the 1962 version, moving on to 1991, and lastly the new series that came out in 2026. Across all three iterations, one thing remains constant: Max Cady remains the antagonist. She went on to explain that the differences among the three alter the central Gothic relationship. For instance, in the 1991 movie, Bowden represents Cady as his criminal defense attorney, unlike in the 1962 film, where he is not his attorney. This complicates the conflict in the story, giving Cady a motive for his crime, because in this adaptation, Bowden suppresses evidence that would have been able to lessen Cady’s sentence.

Though I was previously unfamiliar with these works, it was a wonderful opportunity to gain new insights, and I thoroughly enjoyed attending!

Sports & Video Games

Written by Robin Houghton

Isis and I decided to sit in on the panel discussing Games, Fans, and Fandoms for our conference session. Led by chair Vlada Botoric, all three panelists discussed the use of media, mostly video games, in fostering community and culture.

Vlada Botoric began with his presentation on LEGO fan cultures and the concept of peripheral fandom, a term he defined as a subordinated fan community experience, where members are deprived of access to their objects of fandom.
Botoric explained that although material conditions and accessibility of LEGO products affected creativity, across cultures such as Japan and Mexico, they still managed to create unique cultural expressions with LEGO products.

Next, Cheryl Briggs presented on digital communities, particularly through the VR exercise game Supernatural. Supernatural is unique from most exercise media as its VR platform allows the user’s body to produce the experience, rather than simply being a passive participant. The formatting creates a workout experience that turns exercise into play — but it was its multiplayer feature that turned Supernatural into a way to develop community. Briggs detailed how scheduling routines with people through Supernatural also turned the platform into a community of friends that also helped keep her and thousands of users motivated to continue exercising.

Finally, Dr. Tom Attah presented on how culture, particularly of the American South, can be depicted through video games. Using the game South of Midnight, Dr. Attah discussed how, compared to most media, video games turn a cultural witness into a performer of the culture, using the characters as functions to tell a story. Players gain agency when experiencing the cultures represented that could be otherwise inaccessible without the means to travel to those locations. Attah concluded that video games should be treated as a form of cultural expression similar to music or literature. With more and more people regularly playing video games, the cultural impact of the games people consume can no longer be ignored.

We found the session to be an enlightening discussion on the connection between community, video games, and fandom that left us more curious about the ways we connect with individuals and cultures through technology.

Lunch at Cafe Reconcile & Hansen’s Sno-Bliz

Written by Allie Plunk

Following the morning’s sessions, we had time for a little fun and food! We had initially planned to eat at Cafe Reconcile, a restaurant known for its community outreach and internship programs for disadvantaged youth. Facing an hour-long wait, we decided to eat dessert first, and headed to Hansen’s Sno-Bliz!

Hansen’s Sno-Bliz was unlike any snow cone shop we’d been to. The ice that made up the core of the “snow-bliz” was soft and fluffy, almost the texture of ice cream. The flavor choices were unique too, offering selections that ranged from cardamom and ginger cayenne to cream of chocolate and coffee.

We all tried different combinations of flavors, though our favorite was probably Stephanie’s ginger and cardamom snowbliz, topped with condensed milk. Some other delicious combinations were strawberry and chocolate cream, banana and chocolate cream, and cardamom and chocolate cream with ice cream.

After dessert, we headed back to Cafe Reconcile for lunch, where we enjoyed a variety of dishes! I had the Reconcile Cheeseburger, which featured a massive onion ring atop a classic cheeseburger. A few other favorites were the fried chicken, the red beans and rice, and the portobello po’boy.

Overall, it was a wonderful experience and a delicious lunch that allowed us to try new things, as well as twists on familiar favorites.

Experiencing Culture at the New Orleans Museum of Art

Written by Isis Hollis

Following our delicious lunch, we had the opportunity to visit the New Orleans Museum of Art. We were able to explore some of the major forms of art LEAP typically sees, such as impressionism, expressionism, and modernism, in addition to some of Louisiana’s characteristic folk art!

With three floors to explore, we started on the second with Professor Yawn as our guide. Something we don’t see often in the museums we visit is decorative art. Many people know this as Tiffany lamps or floral vases, but we were able to see this in various forms. The Eames chair, most popularly known for its modern look, is one of the many decorative art pieces we saw. One of my favorite decorative art pieces was a Tiffany vase adorned with intricate flowers. It caught my attention specifically for its variety of colors in the glass and its unique shape. Another notable piece was an intricate stair railing by Louis Sullivan, who’s credited with designing the first-ever skyscraper!

Another highlight from the second level was impressionist art. Many of us particularly like the impressionist style and the range of moods that it can encompass. My favorite piece, In the Garden, Giverny by Frederick C. Frieseke, is an American impressionist piece depicting a woman walking through a garden with flowers and a wall of greenery behind her. One of my favorite features was the cool-toned colors and pops of white throughout the painting.

On that same floor were pieces by Jackson Pollock, Picasso, and Monet.

What was perhaps our favorite exhibit was a life-sized cabin titled America, by Will Ryman. Created entirely out of symbols of American industrialization, such as iPhones, bullets, lightbulbs, and even chains, it proved to be an incredibly thought provoking piece that asked us to reflect on the impacts that rapid industrial growth have had on America.

After our guided exploration, we got to view the other parts of the museum on our own! Allie, Ruthie, and I looked at the Asian art, including Japanese, Indian, and Chinese pieces. Allie and I liked many of the Japanese pieces, specifically the Byobu art. Byobu pieces are traditional Japanese folding screens, often painted with intricate landscapes, portraits, or animals.

Overall, the museum strengthened connections between the artists we’ve seen before and gave us a better look into art throughout different times in different parts of the world.

Press Street Train Stop and Heard Dat Kitchen

Written by Allie Plunk

As a conclusion to our busy day, we ordered delicious meals from New Orleans hidden gem Heard Dat Kitchen! While our food was being prepared, we paid a visit to the Press Street Railroad Yards, the site of the train stop made famous withthe arrest of Homer Plessy. This culminated in the court case Plessy v. Ferguson, which established the “separate but equal” ruling that was later overturned by Brown v. Board of Education, 1954. There was a beautiful mural in honor of the amazing steps towards civil equality that have been made over the years, featuring figures like Ruby Bridges.

After our train “pit” stop, we headed over to Heard Dat Kitchen, eager to eat. Sitting outside at tables while we enjoyed our food provided a New Orleans atmosphere that paired well with our meals.

Some of our dinnertime favorites were the creamy Superdome, a blackened fish dish with mashed potatoes and lobster sauce, and the Heard Dat Pasta, a crawfish pasta topped with fried shrimp and green onions.

Following our deliciously seasoned meals, we enjoyed bread pudding, many of us trying it for the first time! The delicious, nutty dessert was well-liked by all the LEAP students and provided an excellent close to an excellent day.

Conclusion

Our second day in New Orleans gave us the opportunity to experience the city from several different perspectives. From exploring Southern Gothic literature and the cultural communities surrounding video games to enjoying New Orleans cuisine and examining art from around the world, we continued to discover how culture can be expressed through many different forms. Each experience gave us something new to consider and helped us better understand the history and creativity of the city around us. After such a busy and exciting day, we are all looking forward to seeing what our next day in NOLA brings!

Face to Face with a Dictator: The Real Story Behind The Hunt for Saddam

LEAP Students are always eager for opportunities to expand their understanding of global affairs and politics. Recently, we returned to Houston for a special World Affairs Council event featuring a screening and discussion of TNT’s limited series High Value Target: The Hunt for Saddam, alongside the man who lived it: former CIA Senior Leadership Analyst John Nixon.

The program was moderated by Ronan O’Malley, WAC’s Chief Programs Officer, who has followed and hosted Nixon since the 2016 release of his groundbreaking memoir, titled Debriefing the President: The Interrogation of Saddam Hussein.

The evening took a slight departure from the traditional format, opening with a screening of the premiere episode. Starring Joel Kinnaman as Nixon and Waleed Zuaiter as Saddam Hussein, the dramatization pulled us straight into the tension of 2003 Iraq and retraced the relentless intelligence work that led U.S. forces to an underground spider hole in Ad-Dawr.

Following the screening, Nixon took the stage to talk more about Hollywood’s adaptation, the reality of Iraqi leadership, and what it was like to look the Iraqi dictator in the eye.

As the CIA’s top Hussein analyst, Nixon was flown in the middle of the night along Baghdad’s perilous Airport Road to answer the critical question: Had they truly captured Saddam Hussein?

Nixon recounted that the moment the door opened to the holding room, he knew instantly that the person sitting across from him was Hussein. Yet instead of seeing a broken captive, Nixon encountered a master manipulator sitting calmly on a folding chair, acting as though the interrogators were merely guests arriving on a routine Saturday evening. Hussein immediately sought cracks in the room, attempting to pit the CIA and military interpreters against one another when translation discrepancies arose.

Nixon also discussed how Hussein’s chaotic record-keeping contributed to the catastrophic intelligence failures surrounding weapons of mass destruction. For example, Iraq had destroyed vast amounts of stockpiles, but Hussein kept no verifiable paper trail, which was partly out of bureaucratic disarray, and partly out of fear of showing regional weakness to neighboring Iran.

Perhaps most surprising was Hussein’s reaction to September 11. Far from expecting a confrontation, Hussein genuinely believed the attacks would bring Iraq and the United States closer together against shared extremist threats, completely failing to grasp that Washington was already preparing to seal his fate.

Addressing the broader takeaways of the war, Nixon offered a candid reflection that regime change is deceptively difficult, and removing a strongman without a stable post-war framework creates a vacuum that endures for decades.

Before concluding, attendees had the chance to mingle, snap photos, and discuss the nuances of intelligence analysis with Nixon, making it another unforgettable night with the World Affairs Council.