THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH
Race, Nation, and Belonging in Orange County, California
BIO
Born and raised in Orange County, CA, Kalyn McCall is a doctoral candidate at Harvard University. She holds a master’s degree in history from Harvard, a master’s degree in sociology from Stanford University, as well as bachelor’s degrees in African and African American Studies and History from Stanford. She is a student of African American history and culture, and California and western history.
Currently, Kalyn is working on her dissertation examining the social and cultural landscape of the Orange County region of Southern California. Her project, “The Happiest Place on Earth: Race, Nation, and the ‘Dream’ in Orange County, California (1848-1976)” explores the themes of race, identity, memory and forgetting built into the landscape of one of the most consequential regions in twentieth-century political and cultural American history.