Michael Crutcher is an urban cultural geographer interested in the U.S. South and the African American experience. Specific research interests include the privatization of public space, gentrification, urban cultural traditions and heritage tourism. Michael has recently broadened his interests to include questions of both Southern and Black identity, and how each is negotiated and articulated through spatial processes. Michael's immediate project is a revision of his dissertation for a book under contract with LSU Press tentatively titled "Treme Daze: the creation, destruction, and commodification of a downtown New Orleans urban landscape." Treme, is a historic African American neighborhood located just outside the boundary of the French Quarter in New Orleans.