May 12, 2025
UC Berkeley Alum Eva Whitney was the Arts Research Center's Communications Assistant from January 2023 through August 2024. It is with a heavy heart that we share the news that Eva passed away in December 2024 in a tragic car accident. We are heartbroken at the loss of such a generous, vibrant, kind and brilliant light.
Eva was a graduate from UC Berkeley with a B.A. in Comparative Literature. Born and raised in San Francisco, she attended Ruth Asawa School of the Arts for creative writing and has been immersed in the city’s art scene her entire life. She led poetry workshops at 826 Valencia, was a gallery assistant, and ran a multilingual creative writing publication through the Comparative Literature Department at UC Berkeley. Her work was featured in the likes of NYU’s brio Literary Journal and BAMPFA’s Student Committee Film Festival. She hoped to work in publishing & editing.
Eva's loss was almost too much to be borne, by everyone in this community who had the privilege of knowing her. She was universally beloved. On May 2nd, the Comparative Literature Department and Arts Research Center held a memorial gathering for Eva and the Berkeley community. We were so grateful that Eva's parents, Denise Newman and Steven Whitney, were present along with her family, friends, classmates, faculty, staff, and her community in San Francisco and beyond.
In addition to being a fantastic editor of the Vagabond Multilingual Journal, Eva was a beautiful poet, as well as an accomplished writer. Her blog posts were gentle and intuitive looks into the Arts Research Center's events. She was wildly creative, painting watercolor butterflies, doodling zines archiving the adventures of her day, and creating comical video short films and long-form vlogs.
Eva was brilliant, playful, thoughtful, hilarious, observant, beautiful, and unique. She brought light and joy to all paths she walked and people she met.
