Honoring resilience: Ogden Honors College selects Josh Neufeld’s A.D. New Orleans After the Deluge as 2025 shared reading to mark Katrina’s 20th anniversary

Each year, the LSU Roger Hadfield Ogden Honors College selects a shared reading to introduce incoming students to the academic and intellectual culture of the Ogden Honors College through a common reading experience. Students then discuss the book in HNRS 2000 — an introductory honors seminar with a focus on critical thinking. This year, on the 20th anniversary of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the college has selected Josh Neufeld’s A.D. New Orleans After the Deluge, a nonfiction graphic novel that chronicles the real-life experiences of seven New Orleans residents during and after Hurricane Katrina.

Neufeld is a cartoonist known for his nonfiction narratives of political and social upheaval, told through the voices of witnesses. His works of comics journalism have been published by the Chicago Sun-Times, Columbia Journalism Review, Foreign Policy, The Journalist’s Resource, and The Boston Globe, among others. As an illustrator, he has collaborated with such acclaimed writers as Brooke Gladstone, Harvey Pekar, and Nick Flynn.

Awards that Neufeld has received include a Graphic Medicine Award, an Economic Hardship Reporting Project Grant, and a Xeric Foundation grant. He was a Knight-Wallace Fellow in Journalism at the University of Michigan — the first long-form cartoonist ever admitted to the program. He was also an Atlantic Center for the Arts Master Artist, where he mentored eight Associate Artist cartoonists.

As part of the U.S. Department of State's Speaker and Specialist program, Neufeld traveled abroad as a “cultural ambassador,” giving presentations and conducting workshops in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. Neufeld has taught comics in programs and workshops in the United States and abroad, including the School of Visual Arts, Queens College, Michigan State University, and the Solstice Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing.

Neufeld’s illustrations have appeared in such publications as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. His books have been translated into numerous languages.

Incoming Honors students are required to read A.D. New Orleans After the Deluge by Monday, August 25. Current Honors students, faculty, and staff are also invited to participate in this shared learning experience.

Neufeld will speak at Honors Convocation, on Monday, September 8 at 7:30 PM in the LSU Union Theater. All first-year Honors students are expected to attend this ceremony.

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