George Mason University

Instructor

Courses taught:
Globalization and Culture, Spring 2015, Spring 2013, Fall 2012
Department of Cultural Studies, George Mason University
Reading and writing intensive upper-level class examining the history and political economy of globalization through technological advance, commodity production, and labor migration.

Representation of Women, Spring 2013, Spring 2012, Fall 2011
Department of Women and Gender Studies, George Mason University
General education class engaging students in thinking critically about perceptions of women across the globe through historical and contemporary texts from religions, academia, news media, and popular culture.

Alternative Breaks, Academic year 2009-10
New Century College, George Mason University
An independent academic credit option for students to bridge theory and practice through scholarly reflection on their Alternative Break service learning experience.

George Mason University

Technical Writer

- Contracted to research and write web-based news articles promoting programming and advances in the College of Health and Human Services intended for internal and external audiences.
- Coordinated and conducted timely interviews with faculty and students via phone and email.
- Integrated faculty and administrators’ feedback into writing to edit articles to meet specifications.
- Efficiently learned and followed the university’s guidelines for written publications based on dictation.

PETA

Media Coordinator

- Prepared, pitched, and followed-up on an average of 20 news releases per month promoting the organization’s initiatives, activities, and campaigns to local and national publications.
- Reviewed and edited news releases for writing style and tone, as well as factual accuracy according to organizational standards. Assisted in the writing and rewriting of news releases and templates.
- Collaborated interdepartmentally in development of media campaigns and initiatives at daily brainstorming meetings. Monitored specific media outlets to offer new areas of interest to the organization’s Special Projects department.
- Tracked and analyzed media coverage to provide recommendations for follow-up press releases or interviews.

Self-Employed

Independent Scholar

Working on publications and presentations in the areas of Political Economy, Consumer Studies, American Cultural Studies, Globalization, Environmental/Sustainability Studies, and Gender/Sexuality Studies.
Please see my academia.edu page at https://gmu.academia.edu/AllisonLakomski

Flour and Flex

Owner, Baker Master

Proving you can have your cake and eat it too. Winning hearts and building muscles, one healthy plant-based confection at a time.

University of Maryland Baltimore County

Part Time Faculty

Courses Taught:
First-Year Seminar: EnGENDERING Popular Culture, Fall 2016 and Spring 2017
Interdisciplinary general education course introducing students to the study of American popular culture and intersectional gender studies to develop college-level critical-thinking and communications skills.

Introduction to Gender and Women's Studies, Spring 2017
Provides students with the foundational texts and theories of the interdisciplinary field of Gender and Women's Studies with specific focus on the relationship between social, economic, and political power structures and the formation and interpretation of gendered identity as informed by race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, and (dis)ability.

Gender, Race, Media, Spring 2017
Upper-level interdisciplinary course exploring representations of gender, race, class, and sexuality in various media forms with the goal of understanding how the cultural meanings associated with gender are created, disseminated, regulated, and contested, as well as how gender ideology has evolved and been reproduced over time.

Book Review: Fear of Food by Harvey Levenstein

Journal of Social History

Harvey Levenstein’s Fear of Food is an extension of his previous work tracing the development of the American public’s relationship to the evolving industrialized food system in relation to an increasingly globalized form of capitalism. For Levenstein, Americans’ understanding of what is on their plates—how it gets there, what it contains, and what it should be—is the result of the nation’s history as punctuated by specific events, which, though isolated as unique moments within Levenstein’s narrative, are situated along a continuum of the constantly changing social world.

Book Review: Fear of Food by Harvey Levenstein

Journal of Social History

Harvey Levenstein’s Fear of Food is an extension of his previous work tracing the development of the American public’s relationship to the evolving industrialized food system in relation to an increasingly globalized form of capitalism. For Levenstein, Americans’ understanding of what is on their plates—how it gets there, what it contains, and what it should be—is the result of the nation’s history as punctuated by specific events, which, though isolated as unique moments within Levenstein’s narrative, are situated along a continuum of the constantly changing social world.

Review of Portfolio Society: On the Capitalist Mode of Prediction by Ivan Ascher (MIT Press)

Lateral: Journal of the Cultural Studies Association

Historically situated, Marx could not have predicted a transformation of this magnitude, but today we must consider the historical continuity of political economy—the deeply intertwined narratives of market, innovation, and speculation about the future and the static nature of western culture’s socio-economic hierarchy. Taken accordingly, Portfolio Society provides timely insight into specific instances wherein the public and private sectors colluded in the name of economic growth at the expense of public welfare and the stability of the working class.

Cultural Studies Association, Environment, Space, and Place Work Group

Conference Panel Chair, 2016

Cultural Studies Association, Environment, Space, and Place Work Group

Conference Panel Chair, 2016

Cultural Studies Association, Environment, Space, and Place Work Group

Conference Panel Chair, 2016

Cultural Studies Association, Environment, Space, and Place Work Group

Conference Panel Chair, 2016

Cultural Studies Association, Environment, Space, and Place Work Group

Conference Panel Chair, 2016

Cultural Studies Association, Environment, Space, and Place Work Group

Conference Panel Chair, 2016

Cultural Studies Association, Environment, Space, and Place Work Group

Conference Panel Chair, 2016

Cultural Studies Association, Environment, Space, and Place Work Group

Conference Panel Chair, 2016