Dr Mattheis (she/her) is a Lecturer in Digital Media and Culture.

She holds a PhD. and an MA in Communication along with a (post)graduate certificate in Women’s and Gender studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 

Her research interests include digital extremist cultures’ (Manosphere, Far Right, #Trad, and QAnon) propaganda materials, gendered communicative approaches, and economies of digital media circulation. Her expertise lies at the intersection of critical media studies, visual rhetorical criticism, and digital cultural analyses through the lens of feminist STS and Black feminist theories. In the past, she was a postdoctoral researcher in the School of Law and Government at Dublin City University working on the Tech Against Terrorism Europe Project (2023-2024) and at the Cyber Threats Research Centre (CYTREC) in the Hillary Rodham Clinton School of Law at Swansea University (2022-2023), where she remains an affiliate. Her publications include articles in such journals as Policy and Internet, the Journal for Deradicalization, and the CTC Sentinel. Her policy and community facing work can be found via the Resolve Network, RAN Europe, Peace Tech Labs, and Tech Soup’s Game Changer program. She has also contributed to public scholarship on the VOX-Pol Blog and GNET Insights as well as recorded podcast episodes for Right Rising, Yeah Nah Pasaran!, and Battle Rhythm.

She is an Associate Editor at the journal Perspectives on Terrorism and a Leadership Team member of the VOX-Pol Research Network. She has previously held network fellowships with the Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right (2019-2022), the Global Network on Extremism and Technology (2020-2021), and the Institute for Research on Male Supremacism (2019-2022).

Ashley has been developing new BA modules and contributing to the redesign of MA and BA modules in her teaching on the Digital Media, Culture and Society programmes at the University of Manchester. Previously she has taught at both Dublin City University co-leading a module on Gener and Politics, and at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she taught various Communication modules as instructor of record (single module convenor) across various subdisciplines, including:

• Histories of Data I (BA, module co-developer and co-leader, University of Manchester, 2025-)
• Digital Dissidents (MA, module developer and leader, University of Manchester, 2025-)
• Introduction to Digital Media (MA, module co-developer and co-leader, University of Manchester, 2024-)
• Decoding Inequality: Reimagining Digital Culture (BA, module co-leader, University of Manchester, 2024-)
• Gender and Politics (BA, module co-leader, Dublin City University, 2024)
• Organizational Communication (BA, instructor of record, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2021)
• Introduction to Terrorism and Political Violence (BA, module-co-leader, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2021)
• Persuasion (BA, instructor of record, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2021)
• Communication Internships (BA, instructor of record, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2017 - 2020)
• Gender, Culture, and Communication (BA, instructor of record, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2018, 2 semesters)
• Introduction to Interpersonal and Organizational Communication (BA, instructor of record, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2015-2019)

Ashley has also taught at the VOX-Pol Summer School for two cycles including the courses on Digital Persuasion (co-led 2022, 2024), Gender and the Manosphere (solo-led 2024), and Gender and Extremism (solo-led, 2022) along with guest lectures at both the BA and MA levels for UK, EU, and US universities.