Alison Trope, PhD, is a clinical professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. She is founder and director of Critical Media Project, a web based media literacy resource focused on representation and identity (gender, race, class, sexuality, disability, religion, age). Critical Media Project is used in Los Angeles Unified School District and other secondary and higher education institutions across the country. Trope is the author of Stardust Monuments: The Saving and Selling of Hollywood (Dartmouth, 2012), which explores the enduring efforts to memorialize and canonize the history and meaning Hollywood takes on in our everyday lives. She has also written about the history and current state of Hollywood philanthropy and activism. Trope received her PhD in Critical Studies from the School of Cinema-Television at the University of Southern California in 1999, and since 2001 has taught a range of courses in the Annenberg School for Communication in media and digital literacy, popular culture, visual culture, fashion, gender, and social change.