Ashley Howard received her PhD in history from the University of Illinois. She joined the University of Iowa faculty in fall 2019 coming from Loyola University, New Orleans. Her research interests include African Americans in the Midwest; the intersection between race, class, and gender; and the global history of racial violence. Her manuscript Prairie Fires: Class, Gender, and Regional Intersections in the 1960s Urban Rebellions analyzes the 1960s uprisings in the Midwest, grounded in the way race, class, gender, and region played critical and overlapping roles in defining resistance to racialized oppression.

Dr. Howard's work has appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education, BBC World News Hour, Al Jazeera, Financial Times, Washington Post and NPR. In 2023, she and co-investigator Colin Gordon were awarded a Mellon Foundation grant to examine race-based property restrictions in Iowa.

As an educator, Dr. Howard’s primary goal is to teach students to be effective writers, critical thinkers, and active world citizens. Students in her classes develop skills through hands-on learning, like processing questionnaires for the Louisiana on Lockdown report. Howard greatly values teaching opportunities where she can provide quality, university-level education to those with limited access, including underserved schools and correctional facilities.