Ari Davidson (she/they) is a doctoral student at USC Annenberg. Her research interests surround the communicative salience of both pro- and anti-trans performance, speech and media in the contemporary American national imaginary. Her MA thesis, titled "Traversing Gendered Fantasies," explored several case studies of rhetorical situations that employed transness as a politically-motivating communicative artifact, analyzed through lenses such as Psychoanalysis, Queer Theory, and Trans Studies. Her research has been and continues to be presented at the National Communication Association.

Prior to joining Annenberg, Ari received an MA in Communication Studies from the University of Texas at Austin and a BA in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Wake Forest University. Outside of traditional academia, Ari enjoys teaching and coaching competitive debate, an activity she participated in throughout high school and college. When she's not too busy researching, you can find Ari playing video games, trying as much of the good food in LA as possible, and going to raves and other dance music shows.