Débora Ferreira Leite is an international student from Brazil. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the State University of Minas Gerais and a master’s degree in Communication and Rhetorical Studies from Syracuse University, where she also completed a Certificate of Advanced Studies in Women’s and Gender Studies and the Future Professoriate Program Certificate in University Teaching. Her MA thesis, Affective Labor and Deservingness in Global Care Economies: A Comparative Film Analysis in Brazilian and U.S. Cinema, received the Certificate of Recognition of Feminist Scholarship. 

Before moving to the United States in 2022, Débora worked in marketing. Her lived experiences as an immigrant and former au pair inform her research interests in care labor, women’s immigration, media representation, and popular culture. Her recent work examines how representations of immigrant women’s labor intersect with discourses of deservingness and the American Dream. She has presented research at national conferences, including the National Communication Association and the National Women’s Studies Association in 2025. 

Across her academic and professional work, Débora is committed to exploring how narratives of care and migration shape public understandings of labor, identity, and belonging. Outside of academia, she enjoys watching TV shows, working out, running, and traveling.