Faculty
Diana Leon-Boys
Assistant Professor
Affiliated Departments
Assistant Professor, Institute for the Study of Latin America and the Caribbean &
Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Humanities Institute Faculty Fellowship Program
CONTACT INFORMATION
Email
Office: CIS 3033
BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Leon-Boys (PhD, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the ßÙßÇÂþ». Her research and teaching interests are in critical media and cultural studies, Latinx studies, and girlhood studies. Broadly, her research looks at media, social inequalities, representations of marginalized groups, and how these communities often push back against mediated discourses (often via digital platforms). More specifically, her work focuses on the global representation of girls of color in a post-network digital era against the backdrop of contemporary post-feminism and neoliberal frameworks.
Dr. Leon-Boys is a leader and developer of the subfield of Latina girls’ media studies. Her award-winning book (Rutgers University Press, 2023), combines a critique of postfeminism, intersectional analysis, an exploration of girlhood studies, TV and film studies, theme park ethnographies, digital studies, advertising and promotional cultural analysis, political economy, and ethnic and cultural studies analysis. Some of her other work has appeared in the Journal of Children and Media, Communication and Race, International Journal of Communication, Women’s Studies in Communication, Departures in Critical Qualitative Research, Girlhood Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Feministas Unidas, and various edited collections such as: The Routledge Companion to Girls’ Studies (2024), The Routledge International Handbook of Children, Adolescents, and Media, Second Edition (2022), Latina/o/x Communication Studies: Theories, Methods, and Practice (2019), Black Mirror and Critical Media Theory (2018), and Teaching, Learning, and Intersecting Identities in Higher Education (2011).
RESEARCH AREAS
Critical/Cultural Studies, Feminist Media Studies, Latina/o/x Studies, Digital Media, Audience Studies, Media Industries, Global Disney