Vanessa Moreno Wilcox

Dr. Vanessa Moreno Wilcox is currently a Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Latin American and Latino Studies at UC Santa Cruz where she is conducting a research project titled "Mexicana and Chicana Placemaking as Social Justice Activism in Northern California" utilizing archival materials from the Dolores Huerta Papers and Dolores Huerta Foundation Papers under the mentorship of Dr. Gabriela F. Arredondo. She is the daughter of Mexican migrants and was raised in the San Joaquín Valley (Yokuts lands) and San Francisco Bay Area (Ohlone lands) of Northern California. Vanessa is of P'urhépecha heritage on her paternal side, with her father originating from Aguililla, Michoacán, and of Tepehuán/Acaxee heritage on her maternal side, with her mother originating from the El Comedero region of Sinaloa. Her academic research explores Mexican migration and diaspora, intergenerational displacement, placemaking, collective memory, survivance, kinship, Indigenous and Chicana feminisms, Traditional Food Knowledge, and Mexican foodways. Her work practices decolonial methodologies by emphasizing Indigenous survivance, relationality, and reciprocity, while utilizing community-based research, Indigenous ethnography and autoethnography, oral tradition and history, archival research, genealogical research, and digital humanities.
Supervisors: Gabriela F. Arredondo