RESEARCH
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Cultural & Critical Studies 1st place — James W. Carey Award for top Student Paper (2023 AEJMC)
Media Management, Economics and Entrepreneurship 2nd place — Faculty Paper Competition (2023 AEJMC)
Kappa Tau Alpha Research Award for Best Student Paper (2023 AEJMC)
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ICA 2022, Paris
AEJMC 2023, D.C.
ICA 2024, Australia
From a critical-cultural perspective, Ashley’s research centers around LGBTQ+, journalism and sports media.
Research Agenda
Purpose.
From identity to representation, Ashley’s research broadly encompasses LGBTQ+ topics and issues related to journalism and media. Her recent work captures the essence of diversity initiatives within organizations, such as news outlets and mainstream book publishing houses.
Passion.
As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, Ashley is passionate about advocating for equity and LGBTQ+ rights through her work as a researcher. A journalist herself, she also strives to bridge the gap between the academy and public, by making her research widely accessible to the community.
Goals.
Through a sociocultural lens, Ashley’s research strives to understand the current state of LGBTQ+ -owned media outlets, and their role in cultural production. In 2024, she will begin her dissertation—an ethnography of diverse news making and journalistic identity.
Current Projects
Love is love: Reverse isomorphism and the rise of LGBTQ+ romance publishing
On June 2, 2019, Casey McQuiston’s novel, Red, White & Royal Blue, made the New York Time’s bestseller list. The first male-male romance to do so, many industry observers saw this as a “sign of the times;” a pivotal moment for the LGBTQ+ community. In the four years following McQuiston’s Blockbuster hit, same-sex romance proliferated across mainstream bookshelves.
But why the sudden boom? Why in 2019, four years after the Supreme Court passed a bill legalizing same-sex marriage? Are romance publishers finally catching up to years of monumental social change?
To answer these questions, our study examines the processes of cultural production among writers of LGBTQ+ romance, and how digitization and platformization influence decision making within mainstream publishing houses.
Lastly, our study shows how social, organizational, and institutional processes both encourage and oppress marginalized voices. Meanwhile, cautioning that this sea change potentially creates new forms of exclusion.