Ashley Hope Pérez

Photo of Ashley Hope Pérez

Ashley Hope Pérez

Associate Professor, Director of Undergraduate Studies, and World Literature Program Coordinator
she/her

perez.390@osu.edu

Areas of Expertise

  • Latin American and Latinx literature
  • Narratology and narrative ethics
  • Youth culture and literacy practices
  • Young adult and children's literature
  • Literary free speech
  • World literature

Education

  • Ph.D in Comparative Literature, Indiana University

Ashley Hope Pérez is a literary scholar, novelist, youth advocate, and educator. Across these areas, she explores the ethical implications of how we tell, read, mediate, and interpret narratives. Her recent book of literary criticism, Deformative Fictions: Narrative Ethics and Cruelty in Twentieth-Century Latin American Literature (2024), considers how difficult works of fiction disrupt readers’ attempts to make sense of narrated cruelty, what we can do in response, and how these uncomfortable encounters matter for our understanding of narrative ethics. 

As one of the most frequently banned writers in the United States since 2021, Pérez uses her insights and experiences to advocate for students and their right to learn, grow, and access diverse literature. Her anthology Banned Together: Our Fight for Readers' Rights (2025) brings together banned writers to share their experiences, inform readers about the works of literature disappearing from library shelves, and empower them with ways to fight back. Her newly designed course, CS 4021: Banned Books and the Cost of Censorship, fulfills the GE Citizenship for a Just and Diverse World theme. In 2024, she secured a $500,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation to fund the Unite to Read Project at The Ohio State University.

URP is an innovative, two-year initiative to engage the university community and the public in efforts to expand access to literature and engage communities in meaningful discussions about books and ideas. It brings together university experts, community advocates, and a network of partner organizations to develop high-quality educational materials and public programming.  Through virtual programming, URP highlights both the literary significance of books facing removal from libraries and the broader implications of censorship. These initiatives include author discussions, and a multi-week virtual institute designed to provide training, material resources, and funding to support creative initiatives that promote access to literature. Anchored in creativity, education, and collaboration, URP fosters transformative action in support of young people’s right to read. To learn more about URP events and programming, please complete the URP interest form: bit.ly/4gTK10K

For more information about the epidemic of book-banning and censorship in the U.S. and opportunities to act, visit https://linktr.ee/ashleyhopeperez.

Service

Board member, EveryLibrary Institute (2025–present)

OSU Senator, representing Arts and Humanities (2023–present)

Director of Undergraduate Studies (2023–present)

Member, Senate Honorary Degrees Committee (2023–present)

Member, Project Narrative Core Faculty Coordinating Committee (2022–present)

Coordinating Committee Chair, Comparative Literature Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization (2017–present)

Coordinator of the World Literature program (2016–present)

Arts and Sciences representative, University Teacher Education Council (2023–2024)

Member, Advisory Committee for Executive Dean of Arts and Sciences Search (2018–2019)

 

Publications

Literature

Banned Together: Our Fight for Readers' Rights (2025, edited anthology) 

Out of Darkness (2015, novel)

Literary Criticism

Deformative Fictions: Narrative Ethics and Cruelty in Twentieth-Century Latin American Literature (2024, Theory and Interpretation of Narrative Series, OSU Press)

“Navigating Narrative Ambiguity in Ana Castillo’s The Mixquiahuala Letters.” Teaching the Narrative of Mexicana and Chicana Writers. Ed. Elizabeth Martínez. Options for Teaching Series, MLA, 2021: 158-165.

"Learning Unbounded: Emancipatory Education in Daniel José Older's Shadowshaper Fantasy Series,” Children’s Literature 48 (2020): 124-152.

“Images, Self-Narration, and Radical Pragmatism in Simone de Beauvoir’s Les belles images,” Modern Language Notes 133.4 (2018): 1070-1098.

“Decentering Whiteness and Monolingualism in the Reception of Latinx YA Literature,” co-authored with Patricia Enciso.  Bilingual Review/La Revista Bilingüe 33.5 (2017): 1-14.  

 

Essays (Selected)

Foreword, Acts of Resistance: Subversive Teaching in the English Language Arts Classroom, edited by Jeanne Dyches, Brandon Sams, and Ashley S. Boyd, 2nd ed., Myers Education Press, 2023.

 “‘Young people have a right’ to stories that help them learn,” NPR.org (December 14, 2022). https://www.npr.org/2022/12/14/1142428557/ashley-hope-perez-on-out-of-darkness-book-ban

“Defending Youth Access to Diverse Literature in the Face of Book Banning,” The ALAN Review 49.3 (Summer 2022): 16–19.

“Resisting the Censor Without and Within: School Librarians as Defenders of Youth Access to Diverse Literature,” Knowledge Quest: Journal of the American Association of School Librarians 50.4 (May/June 2022): 34–39.