Catherine Lutz was born on January 22, 1952. She earned her BA in Sociology and Anthropology from Swarthmore College in 1974 and went on to receive her PhD in Social Anthropology from Harvard University in 1980. She has taught at Harvard University, Binghamton University, and at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is currently the Thomas J. Watson, Jr. Family Professor of International Studies and Professor of Anthropology at Brown University where she also directs the Watson Institute's Costs of War study, an attempt to calculate the financial costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Lutz is the author or co-author of many books and articles on a range of issues, including security and militarization, gender violence, education, and transportation. Writing and speaking widely in a variety of media, she has also consulted with civil society organizations as well as with the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the government of Guam. She is past president of the American Ethnological Society and was selected as a Guggenheim Fellow and a Radcliffe Fellow.
This collection consists of the professional papers of Catherine Lutz, the Thomas J. Watson, Jr. Family Professor of International Studies and Professor of Anthropology at Brown University. Materials include correspondence, conference materials, handwritten notes, clippings, and drafts documenting Lutz's research in military, war and society; automobility and inequality; and United States twentieth century history and ethnography. Materials date from 1973-2016 and are arranged into 9 series.
Series 1, PERSONAL AND CAREER DEVELOPMENT, 1973-2015, includes articles about Lutz and her research, education files documenting her graduate work at Harvard University, and a tenure dossier. Of particular note is the legal file which documents the arrest of Lutz and several others after they protested the war in Iraq. This series is arranged alphabetically by record type.
Series 2, CORRESPONDENCE, 1980-2011, contains correspondence regarding various conferences, publications, and research topics. Additional correspondence can also be found in Series 3, Conferences; Series 4, Talks; Series 5, Writings and Related; and Series 6, Subject Files. This series is arranged alphabetically by topic.
Series 3, CONFERENCES, 1982-2010, contains conference materials such as handwritten notes, schedules, panel descriptions, and correspondence. Conferences of interest include "The Arrogance of Power: Being American After 9/11," "The Iraq War and Ethnographic Imagination at a Distance," and "Socialization of Emotion." Of particular note is the folder on the especially controversial teach-ins at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, regarding the events of September 11, 2001. Additional conference materials can be found in Series 4, Talks. Conference titles in quotations were created by Lutz, all other titles were derived from the materials. This series is arranged alphabetically by conference title.
Series 4, TALKS, 1980-2015, contains handwritten, typed, and annotated drafts of talks by Lutz. Some talks include conference materials or clippings. Talks of interest include "Costs of War," "Car Culture in the United States: Marketing Automobility and Leisure Pleasures," "Emotions, Legal Politics and Domestic Violence in the United States," and "Testimony before the House Committee on Natural Resources and Environment." Talk titles are derived from information in the materials as they were titled by Lutz, thus some talks are titled as "comments" on works by others. This series is arranged alphabetically by talk title.
Series 5, WRITINGS AND RELATED, 1980-2016, includes drafts, proofs, handwritten notes, and correspondence regarding articles, books, chapters in edited works, news articles, op-eds, reports, and reviews by Lutz. Particularly interesting materials relate to three of Lutz's books: "Homefront: A Military City and the American 20th Century," "Language and the Politics of Emotion," and "Schooled: Ordinary, Extraordinary Teaching in an Age of Change." This series is arranged alphabetically by type of writing and then alphabetically by title.
Series 6, SUBJECT FILES, 1982-2010, includes handwritten notes, clippings, news articles, annotated readings, and correspondence related to topics such as domestic violence, the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps, and militarization and gender. Of particular interest are the two folders of interviews with people who participated in the CARE Family Domestic Violence Program in North Carolina. Folder titles in quotations were created by Lutz, all other folder titles were created by the processor. This series is arranged alphabetically by subject.
Series 7, OVERSIZE MATERIALS, 2008-2015, contains 4 posters for talks by Lutz. This series is arranged alphabetically by title of the talk.
Series 8, ELECTRONIC RECORDS, 1993-2009, contains a 3.5-inch floppy disc, audio cassettes, CDs, and VHS tapes. This series is arranged alphabetically by record type and then alphabetically by title on the carrier.
Series 9, RESTRICTED, 1977-1995, contains handwritten notes, interview transcripts, photos, and statistics, regarding Lutz's book, "Reading National Geographic." This series can only be accessed with permission from Lutz. To access this series, email Lutz at catherine_lutz@brown.edu and forward her response to the Pembroke Center Archivist at pembroke_archives@brown.edu prior to viewing these materials.
Although Brown University has physical ownership of the collection and the materials contained therein, it does not claim literary rights. Researchers should note that compliance with copyright law is their responsibility. Researchers must determine the owners of the literary rights and obtain any necessary permissions from them.
There are no restrictions on access, except that Series 9, Restricted, can only be accessed with prior permission from Catherine Lutz. The collection can only be seen by prior appointment. Some materials may be stored off-site and cannot be produced on the same day on which they are requested.
Catherine Lutz papers, Ms.2019.016, Feminist Theory Archive, Brown University Library.
This collection is arranged into 9 series.
Gift of Catherine Lutz in 2018.