Amanda Tovar (AT): Hi! To get started, please state your name, title, and pronouns.

Dr. Steve Hoelscher (SH): I am Steve Hoelscher. He, him, his, I've got three titles, I guess. Um, associate Dean of Academic Affairs in the College of Liberal Arts, professor of American Studies and Geography, and Faculty Curator Photography at the Harry Ransom Center.

AT: Oh, wow that’s really interesting! You’re wearing many hats! What are your current research interests. Both for fun and academically!

SH: Interesting? For fun? Well, for fun, I would, I wouldn't even call this research interest, but it's an interest and I eventually want to teach a course on it. And that is, um, the, the cultures of bicycling. It's something that means a lot to me personally. I love riding bicycles. Um, but it's also important professionally because I believe that, um, the best cities, at least that I've been to in terms of quality of life are cities that are good for people to ride bicycles in. So you might not yourself be a bicyclist, but you benefit by living in a city where there's good bicycling infrastructure. So the history of that, how we got to a place where cars are, are hegemonic, uh, I think is interesting and important. So that's something I'm thinking about or read a lot about, and I hope to teach a course on that with my good friend, um, fellow cyclist and fellow UT professor colleague Dr. Dan Birkholz in the Department of English. Um, what was the other part of it?

AT: What do you do? Uh, like academically and for fun?

SH: Ah! Fun. Okay. So that was for fun. So academically, so I've given you, I've made copies of a couple of my most recent articles that'll give you a sense of the work that I'm doing, that one (hands Amanda two articles) is forthcoming in January, um, and this one was published last year (Wounded Landscapes: The Aesthetics of a Damaged Earth). Um, they're both in the area of documentary photography and the relationship of photography to both personally and group identity and to space and place. And that's become something that I've been interested in for quite a few years now. Um, and I've written and taught classes, um, and done a lot of research in that area.

AT: I think this is really fantastic. I, um, you sent me the link, uh, to the museum talk, which I missed again, um, which was very unfortunate for me. But I guess, you know, orals like have kind of taken over my life. And I wanted to ask you like, if I could have a copy of that, of the forthcoming article?

SH: Mm-hmm.

AT: Um, but I was like, I don't know if that's rude.

BOTH: Laughter.

SH: Oh, no. It's nice of you to be interested and ask! Thank you.
AT: No, thank you. I'm super excited about this. Since we are limited on time, what are you currently working on?

BOTH: Laughter.

SH: If, well, actually what I, my thing with bicycles is just sort of a fun hobby. Eventually I hope to teach a course on it. Um, but it's not what I would call serious academic research, but I too have do two projects. Um, one is a Oxford University Press has a series called a very Short Introduction in like, of everything, um, capitalism, Marxism, US History, psychology, Freud, whatever. And I have a contract to write one on documentary photography. And so it is by definition a very short introduction.

SH: Laughs.

AT: Laughs.

SH: So it's supposed to be very short, but it's hard to write on anything of interest in a very sort of condensed way. So that's one thing I'm working on. And then I, I do, I'm trying to collect resources on the long history of documentary photography, but also it's contemporary practices, and I've been doing some research sort of ongoing on this.

The second is a project that I began, oh, probably half a dozen years ago, that's based on a, um, collection at the Harry Ransom Center of a journalist who in the early 1930s tried to, um, end, um, chain gang incarceration in the Jim Crow south by exposing the atrocities of that practice through photography. Um, the Ransom Center has a small collection of both his photographs and his writing on this particular project. Um, I'm interested in it for a couple reasons. One is, um, it, it, it just, that's a part of American history that I do not believe, um, is really well understood. But yet it's incredibly important, this sort of bridge between both, um, slavery and today's mass incarceration is this moment of convict leasing and chain gang labor. Um, and, and secondly, it feels, uh, in many ways very contemporary. Um, he, his name was John L Spivak was not successful in addressing or helping change, um, attitudes in the way that he believed his photographs should and would.

 Um, but we're seeing, of course, during the summer of 2020 with protests after the murder of George Floyd, which became apparent to the world because of the video images taken by a young woman named Darnella Frazier at that scene, that moment helped trigger the response to these atrocities in a way that this photojournalist was not able to do. So that's what I'm working on now. And that's also a book project. Um, mean I published a little bit on that. I could, if you're interested, I could send you that just to absolutely give you kind of a sense of what that's like. That that's a, and I've done a lot of research on that. 

SH: Laughs.

AT: Laughs.

AT: Yes.

SH: But with work right now it makes it difficult to find much time to work on all of these projects.

AT: I was about to ask; how do you have the time to do all of this?

BOTH: Laughter.

 SH: Well, you, I mean, it's, it's, it's sort of put on hold, honestly. Okay. Um, I mean, I, I'm, I'm working on it. Um, whenever I can writing little bits and pieces, um, I've made, you know, I, I keep making conference presentations on it to get feedback on this. I take a lot of notes, so it's moving along, but it's, it's going much slower than would be ideal.

AT: I can only imagine. Um, you know, you mentioned having three, three full titles, you know, and working on several projects at one time like that. And like, I'm struggling to find the time, like, and I'm a baby academic, like, ooh, that sounds, difficult.

SH: No, but I mean, but you are, you also have a really busy life. I recognize that. I remember what that's like. I mean, you are reading everything under the sun and you are also teaching a course and you're thinking about you own research. Um, that is a full-time job also, which I, I honor and respect.

BOTH: Laugh

 AT: Oh it absolutely is a full time job. Um, so I guess like for the sake of time, ‘cause we only have five minutes, uh, what methods do you, do you utilize the most in your research and how do you feel your work, um, aligns with American studies at UT specifically?

SH: Well, I should say, so I'm trained in history and geography, and I bring the tools of a geographer but also a historian, um, to what I work on. Um, what I've described in sort of history of photography is more sort of obviously cultural history. And so those methods are the sort that anybody doing visual culture studies, um, brings to bear in their research. And for me, an archive is, um, finding a photographic archive in working through that photographic archive is central to what I do. I'm really, I mean, it's not enough just to look at interesting pictures. I really am interested in looking at the stories behind the creation of those pictures and the work that those pictures do. And so you need to have, um, a wide array of materials that you're, you know, at your disposal to do that kind of work. Um, my other training is in geography and that's probably most apparent, honestly now in, in this part of my career, my, in my teaching.

Um, I have published a lot in geography, but actually I'll share this with you. This was my, uh, mentor in graduate school. He just died. Um, his name was, Yi-Fu Tuan, here's a picture of him as graduate student in Berkeley. He worked on geo morphology in Arizona. Um, this is me Yi-Fu and a couple years ago. Uh, and then this is his obituary. In fact, I might, I'm gonna give this to you. Okay. But that's an extra copy, so then you can read about him. He was a very important person to help me develop who I am. And he's, but I mean, isn't that great? Yeah.

AT: He’s so cute!

SH: Laughs.

SH: You know, look this. He, it really invented a field, and I think that's reasonable to say of humanistic geography in what he meant by that is trying to put the human directly in human geography and the way that humans interact with are affected by and change the environments in which they live and dwell. That was e's great project. And so for me, that's like big underneath, um, question or issue that I deal with. And I now, I, it's probably most apparent in my teaching and I still am teaching a course even though I have this, this, uh, this job that feels like eight days a week. Um, in the summer I teach a study abroad course in Vienna, Austria. Um, and the theme of the course is, um, “Memory in the City.” And I'm interested in how different elements of the urban landscape, um, communicate a sense of collective memory, but also collective forgetting.

Um, and these are things of course that we find, you know, in our own city, in our own campus, in our own culture. But Vienna is an interesting place to, to look at that. Um, I, I consider it to be an interesting American Studies course because I believe that in many ways the best way to think about our own places is from outside our places. And so the United States, Austin becomes, I think in many ways, more legible once we're outside the United States. And we compare our own challenges of memory with what Austrians are dealing with. And I just happened to pick Austrian ‘cause it's a place I know, well, I speak to language, um, but one can find questions of memory and free forgetfulness in, I would say any culture. And I know our, um, my colleague in American Studies, Dr. Lina Chhun has worked on this a lot. Um,

So how is it connected to these sort of things connected to American Studies at UT? Well, I think all of us, whether we're trained in history or not, do have a commitment to understanding how the past impacts and shapes our lives. Um, we take that commitment to understanding the past seriously. Um, I think what I bring to the department is a geographical perspective. Um, and then also many people in the department work in different aspects of visual culture. And so I, I think that's, that is the strength of the department. I, I hope that I can add a little bit to that.

AT: That's, like, so fantastic to hear you talk about, like the collective like memory, but also forgetfulness. Um, cause I feel like my research is, I mean, I'm from south Texas and so like my research is primarily, like from a bordered perspective, right?

SH: Mm-hmm. Mmm-hmm.

 AT: Um, but what I'm really looking at right now is like agriculture and the way that agriculture kind of shaped the city. And um, at first I had a very pessimistic view of it because I was like, oh, this is colonizers world, like fruits, like how, like why is it so like etched onto our identity? Right. Um, ‘cause I don't know if you're familiar with the fact that, um, south Texas is one of like, our, our number one export is grapefruits.

SH: Yes. Mm-hmm.

 AT: Um, and so, um, there was like this whole thing when, um, Four Corners Brewery launched their like grapefruit beer, like the Queen Bee.

Um, and the grapefruits that they selected were from South Texas and everybody was like, so happy and excited. I was, you know, like a baby graduate student, a master’s student actually, like, just viewing the world critically and only in this like, very pessimistic. Um, and I was like, how dare—are you really going to be happy about this? Like, oh. Like, it was just like, I had like such a visceral response to it. Um, but then as I started my like, time here at UT Austin, I kind of had a different approach to it that was like more positive, um, because I was like, wait a minute. Like people in south Texas have sort of like reclaimed this right. And, uh, made it our own. So like, we have like grapefruit queens in citrus festivals and it's just like very different things. Um.

SH: What what led you to change your, your view on that, do you think?

AT: Um, honestly, reading all of the (ASA) presidential addresses and, oh, Dr. Carry Cordova! Mainly Cary! She, um, assigned this one reading about, um, I can't remember the author, but basically just like how everybody just wants to like critique things, but like, nothing really formidable comes from that. So then, um, and she like gave us this reading in the fall of 2020. So then my 2020, like New Year's resolution was like, I'm not gonna critique anything unless I have a solution. And so like that really like shifted like my perspective on everything.

SH: That's awesome.

AT: Yeah.

BOTH: Laughter.

AT: It shifted my perspective on everything. Yeah. She's, she's really fantastic.

SH: She is, yes.

AT: I’m so sorry that I was late. I was so lost. Um, but I guess there are two other questions. One of 'em being, or two, two of 'em are, um, how did you come to American Studies? And then another one is how does UT make your work possible? Maybe if you wanna send that to me in an email, but one thing I'm really interested in, in hearing and having a first first-hand visual response is on what is your favorite thing about American Studies at UT?

SH: Well, three, gosh, three, three big questions. So my favorite Yeah. Thing about UT American Studies I would say, can I say a couple things?

AT: Mm-hmm.

SH: One is I've always found the com the community to be simultaneously, intellectually engaging in all sorts of incredibly interesting and important issues from multiple viewpoints. People are, are curious, they're hardworking, they really care about what they do, they take it super seriously. At the same time, it's a, a community that I found to be incredibly warm and generous and supportive. I think it's fair to say that that combination is not shared universally in every academic department in the country. And we are really fortunate to be in a place that is so simultaneously supportive but also high powered and energetic. I mean, so when I got here from, uh, my first job was at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I came here and I recognized a couple of things. It's like, oh my God, everybody here's a great teacher!

SH: Laughs.

SH: I better really up my game! And then secondly, oh my goodness, everybody is an amazing scholar who are publishing works all over the place and all these important issues. And so I just felt, um, like I would, I I landed at the best place imaginable for me.

I mean, American study is also, I love the, the open nature of intellectual inquiry. Like one of the things that bore me about geography was the question I heard in grad school. So how was this geography? I thought how, to me, those disciplinary boundaries seem so unimportant and dull. And I got that from Yi-Fu ‘cause he was never interested in that either. Uh, but we both thought of ourselves as geographers. And for me, geography is best when it's asking interesting questions in, in using multiple approaches. And that attitude was kind of at the core of the DNA of what American Studies was.

AT: I would agree.

SH: Yeah. Is it, do you like it?

AT: Absolutely. Yeah. I mean because I mean, I never had really considered myself, um, someone who was like a geographer. Cause I have no training whatsoever in that. But yesterday, like during my oral exam, at the end of it, everybody was like, are like, are you a geographer? Like really all of my responses were really very place-based. Oh. And, um, so like hearing you talk about this, I'm like, yeah, like I resonate with this like so hard, like because I think that like there is a human component to like geography and like where we are and what does that mean and how does it, how do we affect geography and how does geography affect us? I mean especially because as I mentioned, I'm like researching grapefruits and then so there's a way that geography affects us and our identity, right?

SH: Mm-hmm.

AT: But then we affected the geography by bringing them and cultivating them.

 

*At this point Dr. Hoelscher & Amanda ran out of time during the interview, and Dr. Hoelscher sent the rest of his responses via email. They are as follows:

Question (Q): How did you come to American Studies as a discipline? 

Answer (A): By comparison to many in the field, I came to American Studies rather late, and at a moment of serendipity. What I mean is that, during a research leave from my first tenure-track job at LSU, where I was teaching in the Department of Geography and Anthropology, two things happened. First, I was contacted by the editor of American Quarterly to write a review essay on performance and ethnographic encounter in the United States. Then, within weeks, a friend from graduate school sent me a copy of a job ad for the position at UT AMS. The timing of these two events seemed uncanny. Afterall, I had no formal training in American Studies (Wisconsin, for reasons I still don’t quite understand, didn’t have an American Studies program), so my “training” in the field was informal. I took classes in History and Anthropology, which introduced me to American Studies, reading deeply into what I now recognize to be the discipline’s canon, without really even naming it. My mentors in Geography also encouraged me to read and research topics well beyond the boundaries of that field. It seemed like a stretch to apply for the job, but a couple of the areas that the department highlighted fit me well, most notably cultural geography and public history. I’ve felt at home ever sense.

Q: How does American Studies at UT make your work possible? 

A: American Studies at UT has made my work possible in all sorts of ways, both large and small. Most importantly, colleagues—many of whom are true peer mentors— have always encouraged me to follow whatever directions my interests have led, even if the destinations were not entirely clear. I’ve always felt supported by very smart, extremely dedicated scholars. These colleagues are leaders in the field, but also kind, compassionate people, who care about each other and the students who are part of our community. The older I get and the more experienced I’ve become makes me realize how rare and precious that combination is.

Q: Fun fact about you that you'd like your colleagues to know!

A: I’ve skied the 55 km American Birkebeiner race six times; and my favorite symphony is Beethoven’s Seventh, but I can’t really tell you why.