Ashley Guajardo

Dr. Ashley ML Guajardo (née Brown) is an award-winning teacher, streamer, and scholar. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Sociology from Arizona State University, a Masters of Arts in Sociology from The University of Manchester (UK), and a PhD in Sociology from The University of Manchester (UK). Dr. Guajardo's research interests lie within the intersection of sexuality and play. She is the author of Sexuality and Role-Playing Games (Routledge 2015), Playing Like A Fangirl (MIT Press 2026), and dozens of book chapters and journal articles on fandom, sexuality, videogames, and table-top roleplaying games. She has held several leadership positions in industry and academia-facing professional organizations. She was Vice President of the Global Game Jam (2020-1), conference co-director of the IGDA's Games User Research Special Interest Group (2021-2), and currently serves as president of the Digital Games Research Association (2025-7). In 2025, she was inducted as a fellow of the Higher Edu