Ashli Q. Stokes

Ashli Quesinberry Stokes (Ph.D., University of Georgia) is a professor of Communication Studies and the former Director of the Center for the Study of the New South at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. A 2020-21 Fulbright Scholar, her research about communicating identity in the Southern food movement has been described as “a call to action.” She recently edited City Places, Country Spaces: Rhetorical Explorations of the Urban/Rural Divide (Peter Lang), and co-authored Consuming Identity: The Role of Food in Redefining the South with Wendy Atkins-Sayre. Her research exploring intersections between identity, activism, and regions has been featured in leading academic outlets such as the Southern Communication Journal, Public Relations Inquiry, Journal of Public Interest Communications, and Journal of Public Relations Research and includes four books, while she also contributes to local and national media, such as the Smithsonian/Zocalo Public Square, Academic Minute, and NPR. Recipient of the National Communication Association Public Relations Division PRIDE Award for public relations pedagogy and the Janice Hocker Rushing Early Career Research Award from the Southern States Communication Association, Stokes has also received external funding from the North Carolina Humanities Council and other agencies to support her research. Stokes teaches courses on Southern foodways, rhetoric, and public advocacy.