Dr. Lisa Abney, faculty facilitator for Academic Research and Community College Outreach and professor of English, will retire from NSU June 30. Abney arrived at NSU in 1997 to teach and conduct research in linguistics, folklife and southern literature, making a significant impact in the Department of English, Languages and Cultural Studies during 25 years of service, research and teaching.
Abney served NSU in a variety of leadership positions, including as provost and vice president for Academic and Student Affairs, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, head of the Department of Language and Communication, director of the Louisiana Folklife Center and director of the NSU Writing Project. In her work with the Louisiana Folklife Center, Abney edited the Louisiana Folklife Journal and organized the Natchitoches/NSU Folk Festival. She later co-founded the Louisiana Studies Conference with current director Dr. Shane Rasmussen.
As a researcher, Abney is at heart a fieldworker, interested in understanding and documenting the cultural and linguistic richness of the people of Texas and north Louisiana. She is project director and fieldworker for the Linguistic Survey of North Louisiana, through which she catalogues and analyzes linguistic variety in the region. Author of numerous scholarly and popular pieces, Abney has edited four books, three focused on the American south, and has been a successful grant writer in support of the Folklife Center and Writing Project. In 2007, Abney was awarded the Mildred Hart Bailey Award for faculty research, and in 2022 she was awarded the Dr. Marietta Lebreton Louisiana Studies Award in recognition of her sustained record of research on Louisiana topics.
Her most significant contributions to the NSU community have taken place in the classroom. From developmental learners to graduate students, those enrolled in Abney’s classes encountered a professor whose primary goal was to help them be successful.
“She is kind, patient, and flexible, and her students continue to express appreciation for her assistance and guidance,” said Dr. Thomas Reynolds, department head. “In her time at NSU, Dr. Abney developed courses in sociolinguistics, narrative and discourse analysis, and folklore that will continue to be taught in years to come.”
Prior to joining Northwestern State, Abney held faculty positions at the University of Houston-Downtown and conducted fieldwork in folklife and phonology in Texas.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in Modern Languages (Spanish) and a master’s degree in English from Texas A&M University as well as a doctoral degree in English from the University of Houston.
