The University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s Center for Louisiana Studies awarded Dr. Nicholas "Nick" Spitzer its James Williams Rivers Prize in Louisiana Studies Thursday afternoon.
The annual award honors a person or organization that has made significant contributions to Louisiana culture.
Spitzer is the producer and host of "American Routes," a weekly music program on National Public Radio that explores American roots music. He is also an anthropology professor at Tulane University in New Orleans.
"It's nice to be appreciated by radio listeners, but this award means even more to me," said Spitzer during a ceremony at Edith Garland Dupré Library on campus.
Spitzer has long had ties to the University and to Acadiana. He lived in Lafayette in the 1980s while conducting folklore research. After Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005, he and his radio show production team were housed on the UL Lafayette campus for five months.
"Lafayette is a place that's not only maintained its culture, it keeps getting better," Spitzer added.
Dr. James Wilson, assistant director of the Center for Louisiana Studies, said that Spitzer's contributions within the field of Louisiana folklore studies are remarkable.
Spitzer was founding director of the Louisiana Folklife Program. He edited and co-wrote “Louisiana Folklife: A Guide to the State” and created the Louisiana Folklife Pavilion at the 1984 World's Fair. He served as the senior folklife specialist at the Smithsonian Institution from 1985 to 1990.
His doctoral dissertation on the Creoles of southwestern Louisiana and subsequent documentary that resulted from that work are considered the definitive treatments of that subject, Wilson added.
The James Williams Rivers Prize in Louisiana Studies honors persons and organizations that have contributed or rendered, recently or over the course of their careers, outstanding scholarly study, work or teaching about the culture, history, art, architecture, crafts, flora, fauna, music, literature, law, performing arts or geography of Louisiana, or about its people.
The prize consists of a cash award and other acknowledgments. It was established with private funds donated in memory of James Williams Rivers, a New Orleans architect and graduate of UL Lafayette who died in 1991.
Previous recipients include authors Ernest Gaines and James Lee Burke, musicians Ellis Marsalis and Zachary Richard, and the late artist George Rodrigue.
To see more from the awards ceremony, watch here!
Shown, from left: Dr. James Wilson, assistant director of the Center for Louisiana Studies; Dr. Nicholas "Nick" Spitzer, NPR; and Dr. Barry Ancelet, professor of French at UL Lafayette.