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University of New Orleans

The Closure of New Orleans' Charity Hospital After Hurricane Katrina: A Case of Disaster Capitalism

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

<p><strong><em>Abstract</em></strong><strong></strong></p> <p>Amidst the worst disaster to impact a major U.S. city in one hundred years, New Orleans’ main trauma and safety net medical center, the Reverend Avery C. Alexander Charity Hospital, was permanently closed. Charity’s administrative operator, Louisiana State University (LSU), ordered an end to its attempted reopening by its workers and U.S. military personnel in the weeks following the August 29, 2005 storm. Drawing upon rigorous review of literature and an exhaustive analysis of primary and secondary data, this case study found that Charity Hospital was closed as a result of <em>disaster capitalism.</em> LSU, backed by Louisiana state officials, took advantage of the mass internal displacement of New Orleans’ populace in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in an attempt to abandon Charity Hospital’s iconic but neglected facility and to supplant its original safety net mission serving the poor and uninsured for its neoliberal transformation to favor LSU’s academic medical enterprise.</p>

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
M.A.
Level thesis:degree_level
Thesis
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Sociology
Year
2012

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Ott, Kenneth Brad
Contributors dc:contributor
  • Vern Baxter
  • Shirley Laska
  • Rachel Luft

Subjects

dc:subject × 34

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Repository record dc:identifier
https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/1472
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:scholarworks.uno.edu:td-2488

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
University of New Orleans
Base URL
scholarworks.uno.edu/do/oai/
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Ott, Kenneth Brad. The Closure of New Orleans' Charity Hospital After Hurricane Katrina: A Case of Disaster Capitalism. Thesis thesis, 2012. https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/1472