Jessica Calvanico is a historian, archivist, and cultural producer working at the intersection of collections, media, and memory.
Her archival practice spans special collections, documentary, and independent research. She has done everything from processing a previously unprocessed collection as a Diane Woest Fellow at the Historic New Orleans Collection, to producing the finding aid for the Trianon Press Archive at UC Santa Cruz, to directing historical research and cataloging digital media for documentary series on The History Channel and NPR/KCRW. She approaches every collection the same way: as a set of objects and records that deserve to be understood, described, and made available to the people who need them.
As a scholar, her research focuses on the history of girlhood, juvenile justice, and carceral institutions in the American South. Her peer-reviewed work has appeared in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society and the English Historical Review; her monograph Carceral Girlhoods: Juvenile Justice and “the Problem” of the Girl in New Orleans is forthcoming from University of North Carolina Press. She holds a Ph.D. from UC Santa Cruz, an M.A. from the University of Chicago, and a B.A. from the George Washington University.
Her creative practice, which includes original music, sound composition, and performance work, runs as a continuous thread through all of it. She has written and performed original scores, produced video and sound collage, and staged work at MoMA PS1, the Art Institute of Chicago, Dixon Place, and universities across the country.