Contact
Phone
641-269-3997
Address

Humanities and Social Studies Center, Room S2356
1226 Park St.
Grinnell, IA 50112
United States

Ashley Crooks-Allen

Mellon Postdoctoral Researcher

Offices, Departments, or Centers: Sociology ,

Ashley Crooks-Allen (They/Them) is the incoming Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Sociology department at Grinnell College.They were the 2022-2024 Dubois-Mandela Rodney / Anti-Racism Collaborative Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Michigan. They obtained their PhD from the University of Georgia, where they focused on Black ethnic identity, social movements, and social media. Their dissertation is titled, “Mestizaje Undone: A Qualitative Social Media Analysis of Afro-Latinx Identity & Social Movements.” This work takes a qualitative approach to understanding how Afro-Latinx people use social media to make identity claims in relation to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Dr. Crooks-Allen's master's research, also at the University of Georgia, focused on Afro-Caribbean identity and experiences with the Black Lives Matter movement in Georgia. They also completed a graduate certificate in women’s and gender studies. They graduated from Emory University with a major in creative writing and a minor in sociology. While at Emory, they were a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow.

Dr. Crooks-Allen is from Irvington, NJ and is of Afro-Costa Rican descent. Their interest in Black migratory identity formation developed while living the effects of their parents migrating to the US and settling into Black prescribed spaces. In conjunction with academia, they also devote time to spoken word poetry and activism.

Education and Degrees

The University of Georgia
Fall 2022
Ph.D. in Sociology
Dissertation: “Mestizaje Undone: A Qualitative Social Media Analysis of Afro-Latinx Identity & #BlackLivesMatter Activism”
Committee: Dr. Patricia Richards (Co-chair), Dr. Maryann Erigha (Co-Chair), Dr. Pablo Lapegna, Dr. Lesley Feracho
*Comprehensive Exams in Race, Class, and Gender (emphasis on Social Movements)

The University of Georgia
Spring 2019
M.A. in Sociology
Graduate Certificate in Women's & Gender Studies
Thesis: “Out of Many, One People”: Afro-Caribbean Experiences and Identity Formation in the Black Lives Matter Era
Committee: Dr. Patricia Richards (Chair), Dr. Pablo Lapegna, Dr. Justine Tinkler                    

Emory University
Fall 2015
B.A. in Creative Writing/English
Minor in Sociology

Selected Publications

Peer Reviewed

Maryann Erigha & Ashley Crooks-Allen (2020) Digital Communities of Black Girlhood: New Media Technologies and Online Discourses of Empowerment, The Black Scholar, 50:4, 66-76, DOI: 10.1080/00064246.2020.1811601

Book Chapters

Crooks-Allen, Ashley  (2022) “Say Her Name”, Chapter 49, in A Love Letter to This Bridge Called My Back, edited by Gloria J. Wilson, Joni B. Acuff, and Amelia M. Kraehe. The University of Arizona Press.

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