Guha Shankar is a Folklife Specialist ( Research and Public Programs), in the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. He develops and conducts skills-based, documentary training programs in collaboration with local communities and cultural and educational institutions in the US and abroad. Dr. Shankar has experience and training in media production, archival media preservation, as well as ongoing projects pertianing to knowledge repatriation, intellectual property and cultural heritage management initiatives for traditional communities. His responsibilities at the Center also include planning and producing public, educational events (festivals, concerts, symposia and seminars).

His research interests include diasporic community formations in the Caribbean, ethnographic media, visual representation, and performance studies. He has produced and edited films on material cultural traditions and community life in a variety of cultural contexts. Shankar earned his Ph.D. in 2003 from the University of Texas -Austin's Department of Anthropology, with a concentration in Folklore and Public Culture, and obtained a B.A. in Radio, Television and Film and Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1982 . Prior to undertaking graduate studies at UT-Austin, Shankar was Media Production Specialist and documentary film producer at the Smithsonian Institution's Center for Folklife Programs, Washington, DC (1985-1993).

Email: guhash@mac.com