Ashley Loup
Areas of Interest: Sports studies, Public Memory & Sporting Commemoration, Gender & Sexuality, & Digital Mapping
BIO
Ashley Loup received her BA and MA in American Studies from California State University Fullerton. She is a PhD candidate in the American Studies department on the Sports Studies track at the University of Iowa. Her research interests include Sports Studies, public memory and sporting commemoration, gender and sexuality, and digital mapping. ​
PUBLICATIONS
ARTICLES
Published Articles
This article centers on pedagogy, fandom, and the role of the community in student work. We asked students in our Introduction to American Popular Culture class to go out and engage fans on the objects of their fandom. Our article is published in Participations: Journal of Audience and Reception Studies. This journal can be found online and is free to access.
This article focuses on the role of art, specifically Robert Graham's Olympic Gateway statues, at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. It analyzes Graham's statues as part of the larger identity-shaping project at work in the city of L.A. through the curated sports statuary landscape. Forthcoming, 2025.
DIGITAL PROJECTS
Ongoing Digital Mapping Projects for Public Use
These digital mapping projects range from completed maps that were part of seminar papers to ongoing projects that are meant to be public-facing.
This mapping project takes up the sports statuary landscape at four different stadiums in Los Angeles: Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Rose Bowl, Dodger Stadium, and Staples Center.
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This mapping project traces public art dedicated to Los Angeles Lakers basketball star, Kobe Bryant. It focuses on community-sourced photographs of murals, as well as sanctioned collections of these public works through Instagram and Apple Maps.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Teaching Philosophy
My teaching philosophy centers critical thinking, lifelong learning, and student success in discussion environments.
DIGITAL SCHOLARSHIP & PUBLISHING STUDIO FELLOWSHIP
June 2019-August 2019
University of Iowa
The fellowship will help position graduate students to pursue innovative ways of thinking about, publishing, and sharing their creative endeavors. In addition to devoting at least 20 hours per week in the Studio on their projects (worked hours arranged with the Studio Program Coordinator), fellows will be given instruction on a host of software and other technology available to create their work.
COURSES
SPST 1074:INEQUALITY IN AMERICAN SPORT
August 2018 - Present
University of Iowa
This course offers students an introduction to current scholarship and debates surrounding issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in sports. Students will learn how to use a critical perspective to examine the meaning of sports within the U.S. In particular, the course focuses on the relationships and dynamics of inequalities in sports structured along such lines as class, gender, sexuality, age, ability, race, ethnicity, and religion. The class is offered in a lecture/discussion section format. Requirements include course readings, critical autobiographical reflections and research and research outline on key course concepts, and lecture and discussion section participation.
AMST 346: SPECTATOR SPORTS IN AMERICAN CULTURE
January 2022 - Present
California State University Fullerton
This course examines the development of American sports from the 19th century to the present. Rather than requiring you to learn many facts about sports, it asks you to analyze the changing roles that sports have played in the cultural and social lives of Americans. Beyond the big three American sports of baseball, football, and basketball, it will deal with a wide range of other sports including boxing, soccer, Track & Field, and eSports.
AMST 300: INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN POPULAR CULTURE
August 2022 - Present
California State University Fullerton
This course explores the historical development of U.S. popular culture, from the 19th century to the present. We will focus our attention on the production and reception of popular culture, studying how marketers and audiences have ascribed meanings to various leisure activities and mass amusements. Throughout the course, we will consider how the ideological content and public reception of popular culture can be shaped by race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, age, and technology.
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AMST 350: CALIFORNIA CULTURES
August 2022- December 2022
California State University Long Beach
This course examines the numerous ways people experience life in the Golden State, and the infinite number of images and impressions of California that exist in the American popular imagination. This course will trace the history and imagery of California from the late 19th century through the present day. Literature, film history, architecture, television, and the visual arts will provide our tools as we explore the creation of histories and images of California. Mythmaking, popular consciousness, representation, and identity formation will be key concepts explored in this course.
AMST 201: INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN STUDIES
August 2023- Present
California State University Fullerton
This course is an introduction to American cultural history and theory. From an examination of a few different thinkers, this course aims to look at history as something that can help us understand the present. This course examines four periods, which Americans widely regarded as some of the best years in our history, but also are categorized by large amounts of political dissent: the industrialization of the late 19th century, the mid-20th century, the 1980s, and the early 2000s.Through our journey, this course will develop your critical thinking and writing skills and cultivate your awareness of American values and institutions, past and present.
