Religion. Media. Narratives.
D. Ashley Campbell, PhD, has spent 11 years telling stories about religion and society as a scholar, educator, and reporter. Her storytelling aims to make complex, nuanced information into accessible narratives that focus on human and cultural stories. She prefers telling stories through podcast/radio, writing, and in-person.
She completed her PhD in Media & Religion at the University of Colorado-Boulder, where her research examined questions of religion, national identity, and mediated meaning-making.
Ashley uses a qualitative, narrative-driven approach to her academic, journalistic, and strategic communications work. She enjoys the opportunity to piece together disparate information into a cohesive narrative accessible to public audiences. Her communication style adapts to the needs of different stakeholders while emphasizing the human and cultural stories involved.
She also has worked with start-ups, research centers, non-profits, and podcasts to develop messaging and build their public presence.
Ashley also hosts and produces the podcast Religionish and she wrote at Sitting in the Stacks about about all thing books, scholarship, and culture.
Her work aims to illuminate the narratives that reinforce power structures and systemic inequality.
Ashley has topic expertise in media, religion, and nationalism. You can reach out to her for guest lecturing, interviews, speaking requests, and other opportunities on these topics.
Feel free to contact Ashley with consulting requests, pitches for the podcast, or to just talk about religion, media, and culture. You can also find her on Twitter.
Why Religion?
“Religion? Really?” tended to be the response I got in undergrad when I told people what I studied and what I wanted to do for a living.
As a facet of human society, religion has interested me since childhood. It impacts our daily lives in ways we don’t always recognize — food, clothes, language, social interactions, politics, media consumption, etc.
Politics, global affairs, and digitally mediated identities over the last decade have changed the response I get. Now I hear, "That's really important" or "You have a lot to work with." This signals to me that working at the intersection of religion, media, & politics was and will be necessary and critical to understanding society.
I applied my interest in religion towards getting a Ph.D. in Media Studies at the University of Colorado-Boulder. There I researched the impact of religion on conceptions of national narrative and imaginaries, national belonging, and nationalism/patriotism, especially looking at the rhetoric and embodiment of civil religion and the mediations of protest, religion, and citizenship. Additionally, I explored material religion and digital religion. To learn more, visit the "Research & Publications" page.
As a student of investigative journalism in the M.A. program at American University, I stepped over to the media side to learn the skills to be a multimedia journalist and to understand how the news chooses to frame religion. This experience allowed me to intern at The Washington Post and Interfaith Voices, while also covering meetings on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
My interest in the intersection of religion and media began during my M.A. in Religious Studies at the University of Chicago Divinity School where I began questioning the ties between religion and the enigmatic concept of patriotism in the United States. I researched the iconography of civil religion in political cartoons, performances of political religion on Twitter, and rhetorical patriotism in denominational publications.
A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS
Crossword Puzzles
Traveling (I’ve been to 20+ countries)
Cheering on the Detroit Red Wings
Hiking
Knitting
Gardening
Baking
Creative Writing
Learning Languages
My cat, Puck, & dog, Raven
Königssee in Bavaria, Germany