BIO

Jessica R. Calvanico is a Producer, Researcher, Writer, and Artist. She is currently a Research Associate with the Center for the Study of Global Racial Justice at Rutgers University and a Producer for documentary series. As a Producer, she researches and develops projects from inception to execution, writes and edits stories, and manages productions of documentary films, series, and podcasts. As an Archival Producer, she researches, clears, and licenses archival assets to craft rich narratives through multi-sensorial storytelling.

She earned her Ph.D. at University of California, Santa Cruz, her M.A. at the University of Chicago, and her B.A. at the George Washington University. Her research considers how histories of sexuality, race, and class converge to create a carceral system of girlhood by exploring the historical foundations of the juvenile justice system in the United States South. Conducting extensive archival and ethnographic research, her current project explores the House of the Good Shepherd, a Catholic reformatory in New Orleans for “sexually delinquent” girls and the legacies of carcerality that continue to shape the contemporary possibilities of girlhood. She has taught at University of California, Santa Cruz, California College of the Arts, Sonoma State University, SUNY Stony Brook, Pratt Institute, and Rutgers. Her writing has appeared in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society and the English Historical Review; she has edited several published volumes of research texts and indices, and wrote an experimental ethnographic play entitled Avalon (Peradam Press). Her current monograph, Carceral Girlhoods: Juvenile Justice and “the Problem” of the Girl in New Orleans, will debut on University of North Carolina Press. 

Calvanico is also a musician and performer. She sings and plays guitar, bass and drums and has performed internationally with many musical projects, including her current project, KIM. As a performance artist, her work has been shown at MoMa PS 1 and the Art Institute of Chicago.