Ashli Stokes

Ashli Stokes is a Professor in Communication Studies at UNC Charlotte and directs the Center for the Study of the New South. Her research examines Southern identity construction through foodways, public communication campaigns, and cultural rhetoric. Recent publications analyze Appalachian resilience narratives, culinary tourism, corporate social responsibility, and activist communication.

Her scholarly trajectory shows deepening engagement with food as cultural signifier, crisis communication in institutional contexts, and digital activism. She authored Consuming Identity: The Role of Food in Redesigning the South (University of Mississippi Press, 2016).