Conspi(racism): Subversive Ideas in Black American Art & Media

Dissertation

Conspi(racism): Subversive Ideas in Black American Art & Media is a study of the art and media-based expressions of conspiracy theories within Black counterpublics. This project analyzes the culturally specific logics of conspiracy theorizing among Black Americans, ultimately disrupting the dominant pathologizing paradigm traditionally used to study conspiracy theories. Each chapter utilizes critical multimodal discourse analysis to analyzes a specific conspiracy theory discourse that has been popular amongst Black Americans, and a cultural form in which the discourse was particularly prevalent. In doing so, this work attends not only to the conspiracy theories themselves, but also to the affective, intuitive, imaginative, and otherwise alternatively expressive affordances of the cultural forms in which they are communicated.

Charles Mills: Race and/as Conspiracy (2025)

Media Theory, 9(2)

“Political philosopher Charles W. Mills provided us with nuanced, integral conceptions of the foundational role of race and racialization in structuring our political realities. His work was fundamentally concerned with personhood and how hegemonic power structures facilitate the denial of full personhood on the basis of race. Mills’ theorization of race and racial subjugation has implications for a wide variety of fields, including media studies. This paper specifically reflects of how his work might help us understand the social construction of race as a conspiracy, providing media scholars with a necessary perspective that allows us to more thoroughly and accurately understand the media-based information practices and behaviors of Black Americans, among other marginalized groups.” Read pre-journal publication blog post here.

#WeAreTogether: University Branding in the Time of COVID and Black Lives Matter (2023) with Sarah Banet-Weiser

The Routledge Companion to Advertising and Promotional Culture (2nd ed)

This book chapter considers the broader promotional context of higher education and the contemporary branding of universities. Universities, like other products, are part of a competitive, capitalist exchange circuit and, as such, have adopted general promotional practices, such as branding, to sell their goods on a global market. This essay focuses on social media as part of the broader neoliberal brand environment of universities and examines the current moment of university branding about COVID and Black Lives Matter and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion through logos, mission statements, and social media–focused campaigns such as #WeAreTogether. Read here.

How Murals by Black Artists Depict the Black Lives Matter Protests of 2020 (2021)

Center for Media at Risk Research

“The 2020 protests against police brutality that ensued following the murder of George Floyd galvanized the Philadelphia mural arts scene. A city with a rich tradition of activism and public art since the founding of Mural Arts Philadelphia in 1984, Philadelphia has become one of the most vibrant centers for public art works in the world, commissioning over 4,000 works of community-based public artworks since its founding. Though Mural Arts started as an anti-graffiti effort (appropriately called the Anti-Graffiti Network until 2016), it has since transformed into a key channel for local artists to engage in the (sometimes radical) discourse around issues in Philadelphia and beyond. As Philadelphia’s reputation for being a mural arts destination has grown, city-sponsored offices and other small arts organizations have also begun sponsoring projects.” Read more here.

Book Review: The digital lives of black women in Britain by Francesca Sobande (2021)

Critical Studies in Media Communication 38(3)

“Frequently, Black women’s digital lives are studied through the lens of resistance; their use of online platforms to tell their truths, to organize, to mobilize, to promote various calls to action, and so on. Their erasure and the appropriation of their work are common areas of interest, centering the “structural oppression and omission” Black women fight online and relating it to the struggles they face in the real world (Sobande, 2020, p. 12). While these immensely important aspects of Black women’s experiences online are drawn out in The Digital Lives of Black Women in Britain (2020), Francesca Sobande adds new levels of depth to the ways in which we understand Black women’s online experiences.” Read more here.