Lydia Burleson

Lydia Burleson is a PhD candidate in the English Department at Stanford University where she investigates the relationship between the American mainstream (what media are most widely consumed) and the margin (groups historically excluded from the cultural center stage), the ways that the mainstream reifies the margin, and the ways that these mainstream representations influence, subvert, or reinforce marginalized experience. Her scholarship is especially interested in the histories and continued intersections of race and labor in American mythmaking. Lydia aims to build a research platform that helps future media resist stereotyping the often-understudied lives that create the conditions for the dominant American experience. 

Lydia is originally from rural Texas and is one of the first people in her family to go to college and graduate school. For more on Lydia's recent work and how her experience growing up in poverty shapes her scholarship, see lydiaburleson.com