About

Debra Lattanzi Shutika

Debra Lattanzi Shutika

I am a Folklorist, writer and ethnographer; I study immigration, communities and change.  My current book project is an examination of immigrants and other newcomers to suburban communities entitled Destination Diversity. I just completed an ethnographic documentation of the occupational culture of Arlington National Cemetery.  I am also revising a novel, The Other KCate.

I am author of Beyond the Borderlands: Migration and Belonging in the United States and Mexico (2011, University of California Press), winner of the 2012 Chicago Folklore Prize

Through a collaboration with the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress I am the academic director of the Field School for Cultural Documentation, an intensive hands-on course on ethnographic research and archiving practices.