Programs

Learning from Katrina

Studying the long-term social and psychological impacts of Hurricane Katrina

This page contains historical information and is preserved here as a matter of record.

December 13, 2007: Individuals displaced by Katrina form a human chain against the demolition of their homes in the B.W. Cooper public housing development in New Orleans.

Credit: Edwin Lopez

The SSRC's Katrina Task Force investigated the social dimensions of the response to and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, as well as lessons that can be applied to similar disasters in future. Led by Craig Calhoun (SSRC), Kai Erickson (Yale University), Steve Kroll-Smith (University of North Carolina), and Lori Peek (Colorado State University), the Task Force focused on a range of projects dealing with displaced persons, uses of expert testimony, and the effects of Hurricane Katrina on public-housing residents. Collectively titled "Learning from Katrina: Documenting the Impacts of a Unique National Disaster," these activities have been funded by grants from the Gates, MacArthur, Rockefeller, Ford, and Russell Sage Foundations, as well as the American Sociological Association. One result of the project is the Katrina Bookshelf series of volumes, being published by the University of Texas Press.

Research Project Leader
Craig Calhoun
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