English

Ashley Davies

Master Instructor

About

  • Website

    http://Ashleymdavies.com

  • Office Hours

    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hFjeHKeP9bC6kzuYA_93YXSbbhY8QCDwBmA-29qMvRk/edit?usp=drive_link

  • Role

    Faculty

  • Position

    • Master Instructor

  • Concentration

    • Contemporary Literature

  • Department

    • English, University Composition Program, and University Honors Program

  • Education

    • MA English Literature
    • PhD student in Education, Equity, and Transformation

  • Curriculum Vitae:

Biography

Ashley Davies earned her B.A. in English from Utah Valley University, and then moved with her dog to Fort Collins to pursue an M.A. in English Literature. Earning distinction, her graduate work explores representations of rape in popular music and integrates research from psychology, philosophy, women’s studies, anthropology, and other fields. This, along with her time as an account manager and copywriter at a small marketing firm, has influenced her approaches to teaching writing.  Since returning to CSU’s English department, Ashley has regularly taught courses in composition, literature, and American Studies. Her current research combines her ongoing interests in gender, violence, and representations of the body with her travel experience to bring world comics and global popular literatures into the classroom. Starting in 2017, Ashley has been the teaching assistant and program leader for the community health and education study abroad program in Zambia—leading to an especially strong infusion of African comics in her teaching.

First Generation Story

My parents always valued education, even though they weren’t able to complete college. My dad attended some classes, but with a young family, he spend his time focusing on supporting us. I was fortunate that my siblings went to college and helped to show me the process of applying. Once I got into my first classes, I felt overwhelmed. Even though I was at a small school, it seemed like everyone was more experienced and more intelligent than I was. They were referencing Shakespeare and “The Greeks” and my references were from TV shows. How could I compete or even keep up with them? One of my English professors was the first person to tell me about impostor syndrome, which I definitely had. Once I realized that many of my classmates felt as overwhelmed as I was, I started to build confidence and take more risks in my classes. These small risks lead me to some undergraduate research conferences and eventually grad school.

Courses

  • CO300

  • AMST101

    Understanding our past and our vision for the future can help us to understand the present. In our study of the United States of America, we’ll work to better understand our American mythology and how it shapes our view of history, the American national identity, and ourselves as part of this country. Rather than working purely chronologically, like a traditional history class, we will look deeply into movements and moments of change that have shaped the nation we know today. American Studies, as a field within the liberal arts, is interdisciplinary in nature. Therefore, you can expect to encounter, analyze, synthesize, and write about texts from literature, history, visual art, music, film, architecture, design, psychology, and other fields. By bringing these different texts together, we will start to understand how mythology is formed and what is sacrificed as those mythologies become pervasive. Beyond the study of American culture, the course also requires and helps students develop skills in reading, writing, critical thinking, and speaking; it also helps develop their abilities to work both independently and collaboratively.

  • Honors 192, 193, 292b

  • E352: Reading and Writing the Zambia Experience