| Barry Jean Ancelet | |
| Birth Date: | 25 June 1951 |
| Birth Place: | Church Point, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Other Names: | Jean Arceneaux |
| Known For: | Cajun folklorist, Cajun history |
| Alma Mater: | University of Southwestern Louisiana Indiana University, Université de Provence |
| Spouse: | Carolyn Ancelet |
| Children: | 5[1] |
Barry Jean Ancelet (pseudonym Jean Arceneaux; born 1951)[2] [3] is a Cajun folklorist in Louisiana French and ethnomusicologist in Cajun music. He has written several books, and under his pseudonym Jean Arceneaux, including poetry and lyrics to songs.
Born in Church Point, in Acadia Parish, Louisiana on 25 June 1951. He graduated from high school in 1969. He then graduated from the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now named the University of Louisiana at Lafayette) with a Bachelor of Arts in French in 1974.[4] He received a Master of Arts in folklore from Indiana University Bloomington in 1977. Ancelet obtained a doctorate in 1984 in Études Créoles (anthropology and linguistics) from the Université de Provence, (Aix-Marseille I) in Aix-en-Provence, France.
Ancelet co-founded and acted as the Director the Tribute to Cajun Music, in 1974 and from 1976 to 1980, which became the annual Festivals Acadiens. He has also served as a Director as well as the President and member of the Executive Board for the Festival de Musique Acadienne/Cajun Music Festival since 1980.
He has taught at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, starting in 1977, first as the Director of the Center for Acadian and Creole Folklore (from 1977 to 1980), as a Professor of Francophone Studies and Folklore (1977 to 1980), and he was a folklorist at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Center for Louisiana Studies (from 1980 to 1985).
Ancelet has served as Chair of University of Louisiana at Lafayette's Department of Modern Languages and as the first Director of the university's Center for Acadian and Creole Folklore — regarded as the largest compilation of media resources pertaining to these two south Louisiana ethnic groups.
Ancelet hosted the Rendez-vous des Cajuns, a live weekly music radio program on KRVS for more than a decade.
Ancelet has served as the Chairman on the Louisiana Folklife Commission from 1984 to 1990.
Ancelet is a member of many organizations, including the l'Ordre des francophones d'Amérique, in Quebec, Canada; a fellow of the American Folklore Society; and a fellow of the Center for Cultural and Eco-Tourism at University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
In 2005, Ancelet was named the Willis Granger and Tom Debaillon BORSF Professor of Francophone Studies at University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
In 2008, he won the Américo Paredes Prize by the American Folklore Society.
In 2009, he was named Louisiana "Humanist of the Year" by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities.
| Year | Title | Type | Director(s) | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | I Went to the Dance (J'ai Été Au Bal) | documentary | Les Blank | narrator, self | Film about the history of music in Cajun Southwest Louisiana. | |
| 2007 | It's in the Blood: Leo Abshire & the Cajun Tradition | documentary | Cyndi Moran, Eric Scholl | self | [5] [6] | |
| 2011 | Mardi Gras: Feast Before Fast | documentary | Shereen Jerrett | self |