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The 51��Ƶ at Lafayette’s Dr. Barry Ancelet might be retiring, but he isn’t about to stop banging the drum for Cajun and Creole culture.

He’s done it for a lifetime, after all.

Ancelet, who was born in Church Point and raised in Lafayette, grew up listening to stories at the foot of his father’s barber chair, during a childhood punctuated with the sounds of accordions and fiddles, and surrounded by family members who spoke Cajun French.

A few years and college degrees later, Ancelet joined the faculty at 51��Ƶ at Lafayette, in 1977, and began carving out a reputation as one of the most renowned Cajun folklorists in the world.

“The study of culture, literature, and language through the lens of folklore has been the foundation for my entire career,” Ancelet said on Wednesday at Burke-Hawthorne auditorium, as the inaugural speaker for the University’s new Last Lecture Series.

The Last Lecture Series recognizes a retiring faculty member’s significant contributions to the University and the community.

Ancelet will retire at the end of this semester, after nearly 40 years at the University.

He has been director of the Center for Acadian and Creole Folklore, and a professor of francophone studies and folklore. He also chaired the Department of Modern Languages.

His work extended far beyond the classroom, to community Mardi Gras celebrations, to front porches where he shared a cup of coffee with a bus driver or a carpenter who had a story to tell, to festival stages.

“I’m grateful and fortunate that my colleagues and administrators here at the 51��Ƶ at Lafayette have been flexible enough to recognize the value of what I do,” Ancelet said on Wednesday.

He helped to establish Lafayette’s Festivals Acadiens et Créoles, in 1974, for example. The event was called “A Tribute to Cajun Music,” and “an undeniable success, packing Lafayette’s Blackham Colisuem on a Tuesday night despite lightning, thunder, and a driving rain.” 

“It turned out to be the largest mass rally of what was coming to be called the Louisiana French Renaissance movement,” Ancelet said.

“In the momentum of this moment, the University created the Center for Acadian and Creole Folklore to integrate this new field of study into the academic community.”

Ancelet deserves ample kudos for helping to assemble the world's largest collection of Cajun and Creole folklore, which is housed at the University’s Center for Louisiana Studies.

The Archives of Cajun and Creole Folklore are the backbone of the Center’s archival collection, which includes field recordings, oral histories, and other folklife materials.

The professor credits Cajun music pioneer Balfa for giving him the nudge to get started.

“Balfa had seen the benefit of archives at the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian,”  Ancelet said. “He insisted that we needed a similar bank of information on ourselves here in Louisiana. I pointed out that I certainly didn’t have the financial resources to produce an archive. Balfa pointedly asked, ‘Do you have enough money to buy one tape?’ ”

When Ancelet answered yes, Balfa instructed him “to buy one, record an interview, put that tape on a shelf, and record another when you can afford it. When you put that second one next to the first one, you have the beginnings of an archive.”

“He was right, as usual,” Ancelet said.

Over the years, Ancelet’s work and research has been recognized internationally.

He was named Chevalier de l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques and Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Both titles are bestowed by the French government in recognition of contributions to culture and education, and to arts and literature, respectively.

Such lofty accolades wouldn’t have been possible without “community scholars,” from Balfa to Mardi Gras runners to fishermen. They provided material that found its way into Ancelet's books, films, classroom lectures, and even liner notes for record albums and Cajun French poetry.

“The most important source for untapped information on Cajuns and Creoles was Cajuns and Creoles themselves,” he said.

Ancelet also acknowledged the many students he has taught and influenced.

One of them, Derek Landry, was among the many friends, colleagues and students who attended Ancelet’s “last lecture.”

Landry, 34, hosts the live weekly radio show “Rendez-vous des Cadiens,” which is broadcast from the Liberty Theater in Eunice, La.

It’s a gig that his former professor at UL Lafayette, Ancelet, performed for a quarter of a century.

Landry, who earned a bachelor’s degree in French and Francophone Studies from the University, said he enrolled at UL Lafayette in 2008 to learn about Cajun and Creole culture.

Another reason was for “the opportunity to study with Dr. Ancelet.”

“I come from a family that spoke Cajun French, but my background was like a tool I needed to sharpen, and I knew this was the place to do it,” Landry explained. “It was a great ride, and what a mentor (Ancelet) became to me.”