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Ashley Crooks-Allen

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Alumni

Ashley Crooks-Allen is a Sociology Ph.D. candidate at the University of Georgia, where they focus on Black immigrant identity and social movements. Their dissertation is tentatively titled, “Mestizaje Undone: A Qualitative Social Media Analysis of Afro-Latinx Identity & Social Movements.” This work will take a qualitative approach to understanding how Afro-Latinx people use social media to make identity claims in relation to the Black Lives Matter Movement.   Their master's research focused on Afro-Caribbean Identity & Experiences with the Black Lives Matter Movement in Georgia. They also completed a certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies. They graduated from Emory University with a major in creative writing and a minor in sociology. At Emory, they were a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow. They are from Irvington, NJ and are of Afro-Costa Rican descent. What happens when Afro-Latinx people enter the U.S. context with completely different notions of race? Their interest in Black migratory identity formation came from living the effects of their parents migrating to the U.S. and settling into Black prescribed spaces. In conjunction with academia, they also devote time to spoken word poetry and activism.

 

Education:

The University of Georgia [Spring 2019]

M.A. in Sociology 

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                                                     

 

The University of Georgia [Spring 2019]

Graduate Certificate in Women's & Gender Studies

 

Emory University [Fall 2015]

B.A. in Creative Writing/English                                                                                              Minor in Sociology

 

 

Research Interests:

Race & Ethnicity, Social Movements, Gender, Qualitative Methods, Afro-Latinx Studies, Afro-Caribbean Studies, Social Media

Selected Publications:

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

 

Of Note:

FELLOWSHIPS AND AWARDS

UGA Graduate School Phelps-Stokes Graduate Fellowship                              2021

UGA Willson Center Graduate Research Award.                                                2021

AGEP Alliance Bridge to Academia Fellowship.                                                 2021

University of Maryland Mellon-funded Diaspora Studies Seminar                     2020

RED Seed Grant - UGA Center for Research and Engagement in Diversity     2020

UGA Institute for African American Studies Lee Roy B. Giles Award                2020

UGA Willson Center Shelter Projects: Micro-Fellowship                                    2020

UGA Graduate School Summer Doctoral Research Assistantship                    2020

BIMI Summer Institute in Migration Research Methods                                     2020

Mellon Graduate Studies Enhancement Grant                                                   2019

RED Seed Grant - UGA Center for Research and Engagement in Diversity     2017

University of Georgia Graduate School Research Assistantship                       2016

Moore Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program                                2015

Mellon Mays Undergraduate Research Fellowship                                            2014

 

Events featuring Ashley Crooks-Allen
Online via Zoom

In the U.S., those who identify as Afro-Latinx, do so at the intersection of a Latinx community that often rejects them and an African American community that often does not understand them. I examine the relationship between Afro-Latinx identity and the #BlackLivesMatter movement via social media. By employing, a combination of Twitter analysis and in-depth…