Episode 98 - Lost Cemeteries of New Orleans
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New Orleans, Louisiana is famously known for its intricate above ground cemeteries, but what about the cemeteries that have been lost to time? In this episode Jennie and Dianne speak with returning guest, Ryan Seidemann, about the Ordinary Extraordinary cemeteries that have disappeared beneath the streets and buildings of the Big Easy; including Caesars Superdome, home of the New Orleans Saints football team. From New Orleans' Very first cemetery, to Jewish cemeteries, to the Charity Hospital cemetery and many other burial grounds, Ryan delves in to what happened to them in the past and what is being done to help preserve them or at least recognize them now and in the future.
Ryan M. Seidemann, J.D., Ph.D, RPA
Lawyer, Archeologist, Anthropologist, Professor
Ryan M. Seidemann earned a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from Florida State University, focusing on human remains analysis with research at the Smithsonian Institution and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. He completed a Master’s degree in Anthropology at Louisiana State University with a thesis on Maya skeletal remains from Belize. His early work in cultural resource management ranged across the Southeastern United States, with surveys and site excavations on Archaic peoples to inhabitants of New Orleans in the nineteenth century. Ryan later earned both a Bachelor of Civil Law and a Juris Doctorate at LSU and, in 2021, a Ph.D. in Urban Studies/Urban Anthropology from the University of New Orleans, with a dissertation on cemetery preservation inequities in New Orleans.
Throughout his law practice in both Louisiana and Vermont, Ryan has continuously show cased his ability to balance the intersecting worlds of cultural resources management, archaeology, cemeteries, and law. Ryan previously served as an Assistant Attorney General (2005-2024) and Chief of the Lands & Natural Resources Section (2007-2024) of the Louisiana Department of Justice. In that position, he represented the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, the Office of State Lands, Louisiana Cemetery Board, and the Louisiana Division of Archaeology, among other government agencies. He has argued cases in most Louisiana district courts, all Louisiana appellate courts, and multiple times before the Louisiana Supreme Court. Ryan has authored or co-authored more than 100 publications on hu… Read More