Academic and Professional Honors and Awards:
Grand Champion, Celtic Bayou Festival Guiness Cookoff, January 2026.
Champion of Culture (for Festivals Acadiens et Créoles), for the Humanities, 2025.
Festival Honoree, Mamou Cajun Music Festival, September 2024.
ICON Award for Leadership in the Creative Economy, Travailler, c'est trop dur: The Lyrical Legacy of Caesar Vincent, co-producer with Patrick Mould and Christopher Stafford, Arts, Business and Culture Fund, Acadiana Center for the Arts, Lafayette, April 2019.
Poète Lauréat de la Louisiane Francophone," Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities and CODOFIL Consortium, 2018-2020.
Doctorat en études acadiennes honoris causa, Université Sainte-Anne, Pointe de l'église, Nouvelle-écosse, May 2017.
Grammy Nomination (Regional Roots), Promised Land (with Sam Broussard), 2016.
Order of Living Legends, Acadian Museum, Erath, 2015.
Le Cajun Song of the Year, "La vie est jamais garantie," as performed by Kevin Naquin and the Ossun Playboys, Cajun French Music Association, 2015.
Cajun French Music Hall of Fame, Eunice, 2015.
Acadian Culture Preservation Award, Vermillonville/Lafayette Consolidated Government, Lafayette, 2015.
Outstanding Doctoral Student Mentor, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 2013-2014.
Honorary Member, Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society, 2012.
Le Cajun Song of the Year, "Fordoches," as performed by Kevin Naquin and the Ossun Playboys, Cajun French Music Association, 2011.
Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities 2010 Book of the Year: Dictionary of Louisiana French as Spoken in Cajun, Creole and American Indian Communities, co-authored with Albert Valdman, Kevin Rottet, Tom Klingler, Amanda LaFleur, Richard Guidry, Tamara Lindner, Michael Picone, and Dominique Ryon (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2009).
Gold Addy, Festivals Acadiens et Créoles 2009 arts poster, Megan Barra Graphic Design (with Megan Barra, Francis Pavy and TriStar Graphics Group), Acadiana Advertising Federation, 2010.
Lifetime Achievement Award in Music Education, Offbeat Magazine, New Orleans, January 2010.
Distinguished Citizen, Lafayette City-Parish Government, 2009.
Silver Addy, Festivals Acadiens et Créoles 2008 arts poster, Megan Barra Graphic Design (with Megan Barra, Thad Morgan and TriStar Graphics Group), Acadiana Advertising Federation, 2009.
Silver Addy, Louisiana Crossroads Records' Festivals Acadiens 1981 packaging, Megan Barra Graphic Design (with Megan Barra, Philip Gould, Todd Mouton, and Chris Segura), Acadiana Advertising Federation, 2009.
Humanist of the Year, Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, 2009.
Americo Paredes Award, American Folklore Society, 2008.
Lifetime Achievement Award, Cinema on the Bayou Film Festival, 2008.
Annual Prestige Awards Golden Mike Award, Louisiana Association of Broadcasters, 2007.
Honorary Lifetime Member, American Association of Teachers of French, 2007.
Chevalier, Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, République Française, 2006; promoted to Officier, 2023.
Fellow, American Folklore Society, 2005.
Le Cajun Song of the Year, "Un amusement qui m'a coûté," as performed by Kevin Naquin and the Ossun Playboys, Cajun French Music Association, 2000.
Chevalier, Ordre des Palmes Académiques, Ministère de l'Education, République Française, 1999.
James William Rivers Award for Louisiana Studies, 1996.
Le Cajun Song of the Year, "Tard dans la vie," as performed by Wayne Toups ZydeCajun, Cajun French Music Association, 1992.
Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Special Humanities Award, 1990.
University Foundation Distinguished Professor, 1990.
Listed in Dictionnaire de l'Amérique française, 1989.
Listed in Qui est qui en francophonie, 1988-89.
Listed in Who's Who in the South and Southwest, 1988.
Listed in Contemporary Authors, 1985.
Listed in Outstanding Young Men in America, 1985.
Outstanding Young Teacher (Louisiana), 1984.
Membre, Ordre des Francophones d'Amérique, 1982.
French Government Scholarship, 1972-73.
France-Amérique Scholarship, 1972.