Grad Profile: Wesley Viebahn
Wesley Viebahn is a PhD student in Literature at UC Santa Cruz. Her project explores nostalgia and race in mid-twentieth century California literature. Viebahn served as a THI Public Fellow with the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History during Summer 2023 and she was a Graduate Student Success Fellow from 2021-2023. In March, we discussed Viebahn’s research, the ways nostalgia can obfuscate violent histories, her work with the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History organizing and digitizing the Evergreen Cemetery Archive, and the importance of collaborative, cross-departmental mentorship spaces for new graduate students.
Hi Wesley! Thanks for chatting with us about your ongoing research. To begin, could you give us a general synopsis of your research project?
Hi! First, thank you so much for this opportunity to talk about my work. I’m in the third year of my PhD in the Literature department and my current project looks at the way nostalgia is portrayed in works of California literature from the 1950s to 1970s. In particular, I’m interested in examining nostalgia as it relates to race, racial identity, and racial identity formation. The works I study approach and showcase nostalgia in different ways. Some works have nostalgic characters and some are steeped in the author’s own nostalgia; in some works nostalgia is presented in a positive light, while in others it has detrimental effects. The mid-20th century was a particularly tumultuous era in California history and the depiction and usage of nostalgia in literature from this time period shows authors’ attempts to make sense of the enormous cultural and social upheavals they– and California as a whole– were experiencing.
Part of your project aims to explore the role of nostalgia and romanticization in California literature, and trace how these phenomena obfuscate the violent realities of California’s history in favor of idealized imperialist fantasy. Could you give us an example of this mechanism at work in a piece of California literature?
Emblematic of this nostalgic fantasy is the idea of California as an empty, untouched land, discovered and settled by white pioneers, whose descendants, like the characters in Run River, are the only true “native” Californians.
The novel I’m working most closely with at the moment is Joan Didion’s debut novel, Run River, published in 1963. Didion is seen (alongside John Steinbeck) as “the” great California author, as much of her work is set in California and explores the subject of California identity. Run River, set in a rapidly expanding, post-WWII California, shows a wealthy, white “native” Sacramento family whose nostalgic obsession with the past leads, in a melodramatic fashion, to their downfall. What I find so fascinating about Run River is that its characters are nostalgic for a romanticized pioneer-era California they themselves never experienced. Emblematic of this nostalgic fantasy is the idea of California as an empty, untouched land, discovered and settled by white pioneers, whose descendants, like the characters in Run River, are the only true “native” Californians. Of course, this vision of the past is severely whitewashed, obscuring California’s history as a site of violent settler colonialism and Indigenous genocide. My research attempts to investigate the origins and effects of this kind of nostalgia, especially as it pertains to white Californian racial identity formation. In addition, in the case of Run River, I examine the ways in which Didion can be both critical of and complicit in this nostalgic way of thinking.
In the Summer of 2023, you served as a THI Public Fellow with the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History as the Assistant Archives & Exhibitions Coordinator. What drew you to collaborate with the MAH? What major projects did you work on in this position?
The MAH was the perfect place for me – their archive is absolutely stuffed with fascinating historical collections pertaining to Santa Cruz County and beyond.
I’ve always loved archival work – I actually minored in Library and Information Sciences. For my public fellowship, I definitely wanted to work in an archive, especially one containing pieces of California history. The MAH was the perfect place for me – their archive is absolutely stuffed with fascinating historical collections pertaining to Santa Cruz County and beyond.
I’ve also always loved Santa Cruz’s Evergreen Cemetery, one of the oldest cemeteries in California and probably my favorite place in Santa Cruz (aesthetically and historically). When I found out that the MAH managed Evergreen and owned their archive, I knew that working with the Evergreen Cemetery Collection was what I wanted to do. My goal for the summer was to digitize as much of the collection as I could, as it will eventually be available online for perusal by the public. It’s a pretty big collection: after organizing the collection and creating a finding aid, I ended up digitizing the Evergreen photography collection – two boxes out of twenty!
I also spent my summer volunteering at Evergreen – the gardening, landscaping, and restoration is done completely by a group of volunteers. I raked, moved branches, cleaned headstones, and did lots of weeding.
As you worked on organizing and digitizing the Evergreen Cemetery Archive, I’m wondering if you came across any historical ephemera that was particularly memorable, surprising, or interesting as part of this project?
I feel like I found so many fascinating pieces of information, not only about Evergreen, but about Santa Cruz, and California in general. I liked examining very old photographs, such as a photo from the 1860s of what is now Harvey West Park. Back then, the entire area that is now Harvey West, Costco, and the surrounding buildings was simply a single cabin in a field, with Evergreen in the background. That also goes to show how integral cemeteries are to the establishment of communities – as small as a town may be, it will always have at least one cemetery.
In addition, the archive was filled with personal letters dating as far back as the 1920s, from descendants of those buried at Evergreen. Many of the letters were donations to and thank yous for the conservation and maintenance of the cemetery, specifically the descendants’ family graves. Often, sometimes traveling great distances, descendants made regular visits to the cemetery for events or to help with the upkeep of their family plots. Many still do! I found these letters interesting as proof of how important the preservation of family heritage is to many people, and how graves and burial sites become emblematic of family history and pride.
From 2021-2023, you were a Graduate Student Success Fellow. What’s one aspect of the program that felt particularly useful to you?
Through the GSS program, I learned not only how to specifically navigate UCSC and the Humanities Division, but also how to function, grow, and take care of myself as a PhD student.
Being a new graduate student is really lonely and daunting! Having meetings in which I could connect with other first and second year students, many from other departments, was really beneficial to my comfort and wellbeing in the first two years of my program. I also appreciated the GSS program as an informal opportunity to chat with professors and older graduate students. The friendly and casual atmosphere of the GSS program, from meetings to workshops to peer mentorships, made me feel comfortable asking questions I wouldn’t have known how to otherwise. Through the GSS program, I learned not only how to specifically navigate UCSC and the Humanities Division, but also how to function, grow, and take care of myself as a PhD student.
What’s your favorite spot on UCSC’s campus?
I love to sit on the outside reading porches on the top floor of McHenry, so I can see and smell the trees! But I’m most often found in the Literature graduate lab, affectionately nicknamed the “Bunker,” working at my desk, which I’ve decorated with notes from my students and polaroids of my cat.
Banner Image: Entrance to Evergreen Cemetery.