Her research centers on media and diversity issues, and particularly on gender as it intersects with race and ethnicity. Liebler’s research explores news media visibility and the concepts of absence and symbolic annihilation. In this context she has studied missing children and women, including media critiques of “The Missing White Woman Syndrome.” A related area of interest is hegemonic beauty ideals across various media platforms, especially in the United States and China.

Liebler’s teaching includes quantitative and qualitative research methods; mass communications theory; race, gender and media; and media, gender and beauty ideals. She also teaches media and diversity, a graduate course she pioneered in the Newhouse curriculum.

Her work has been published in a variety of academic communication journals and she was a co-editor of “Media scholarship in a transitional age: Research in honor of Pamela J. Shoemaker” (2018).