Lisa Shutt

Lisa Shutt has served on the faculty of the Department of African American & African Studies since 2011, but her association with the Woodson Institute reaches back to time as a scholar-in-residence between 2004-2006. Shutt currently serves as Professor of the General Faculty and Associate Chair of the Department. Her work includes the study of national identity formation in and transnational migration to urban Gabon (Central Africa), food studies in Africa, the Diaspora and France, and recently, Shutt has begun to examine how students and faculty can work together with community partners to support the uplift of local Black histories, specifically at River View Farm (Albemarle County) through her work with the Ivy Creek Foundation, sponsored by the Jefferson Trust.

Shutt earned her Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Virginia, holds master’s degrees from the University of Chicago and the University of Virginia, and graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Bucknell University.