Book cover of "Black Oot Here: Black Lives in Scotland" by Francesca Sobande and layla-roxanne hill. The cover features the title in a white, bold, capitalised font, against a background of black, purple, and teal swirling blocks of colour.

Cover design by Adriana Brioso

Book cover of "Consuming Crisis" by Francesca Sobande. White background with a large light blue circle in the centre and the title in white. Cover images include two Black people with a striking stance, and a white hand holding a heart-shaped lolly.

Cover design by Wendy Scott

Cover design by Kevin Barrett Kane

 

BOOKS

Cover design by Luke Bird

hill, l-r. and Sobande, F. (forthcoming, 2025) Look, Don’t Touch: Reflections on the Freedom to Feel. Edinburgh: 404 Ink.

Sobande, F. (2024) Big Brands Are Watching You: Marketing Social Justice and Digital Culture. Oakland: University of California Press. [Open access chapter via UC Press]

Saha, A., Sobande, F., and Titley, G. (2024) The Anti-Racist Media Manifesto. Cambridge: Polity.

Sobande, F. (2022) Consuming Crisis: Commodifying Care and COVID-19. London: SAGE. [Open access chapters via SAGE]

Sobande, F. and hill, l-r. (2022) Black Oot Here: Black Lives in Scotland. London: Bloomsbury.

Sobande, F. (2020) The Digital Lives of Black Women in Britain. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. [Open access book via the Free Black University]

Emejulu, A. and Sobande, F. (eds.) (2019) To Exist is to Resist: Black Feminism in Europe. London: Pluto Press.

 
 

GRAPHIC NOVEL + EXHIBITION

Black Oot Here: Dreams O Us

How do we learn about the past while living and dreaming in the present?

Co-authored by Francesca Sobande and layla-roxanne hill, illustrated by Chris Manson, translated in Scots by Lesley Benzie, and translated in Scottish Gaelic by Naomi Gessesse. Freely available, along with an accompanying animation: blackinscotland.com

Black Oot Here and There is an online exhibition that builds on this work. This wider collaboration focuses on Black life in Scotland and Wales. The exhibition brings together photography, music, video, paintings, poetry, a short story, recorded conversations, and more, by Black people in/from Scotland and Wales.

All artwork by Chris Manson

All artwork by Chris Manson

 
 

JOURNAL ARTICLEs, commentaries, and reports

Sobande, F. (forthcoming) Children are our future, let’s support theirs. Representology.

lasade-anderson, t. and Sobande, F. (2024) Ideology as/of platform affordance and Black feminist conceptualisations of “cancelling”: Reading Twitter [Open access]. Television and New Media.

Sobande, F. (2024) Challengers: A cultural studies commentary on the fire and ice of filmic desires [Open access]. European Journal of Cultural Studies.

Sobande, F. and Amponsah, E-L. (2024) Demands, displays, and dreams of “Black joy” during times of crisis [Open access]. Ethnic and Racial Studies.

Sobande, F. and Williams, J. (2024) “Swelce” and “Heat Wentz”: The politics, para-sociality, and pairing of sports and popular music. [Open access]. Flow: a critical forum on media and culture.

Rosa-Salas, M., Sobande, F., Steinfield, L., Thomas, K.D., & Timke, E. (2024) Roundtable on the challenges of doing intersectional work in advertising [Open access]. Advertising & Society Quarterly 25(3).

Sobande. F. (2024) “He is a total sweetheart”: UK reality TV and technologies of populist publicity [Open access]. Journal of Cinema and Media Studies.

Sobande, F. (2024) White and gendered aesthetics and attitudes of #pandemicbaking and #quarantinebaking [Open access]. European Journal of Cultural Studies 27(3): 389–407.

Smart, A., Williams, R., Weiner, K., Cheng, L., and Sobande, F. (2024) Ethico-racial positioning in campaigns for COVID-19 research and vaccination featuring public figures [Open access]. Sociology of Health & Illness.

Weeks, K., Sobande, F., Newman, J., Hearn, A., Soper, K., and Littler, J. (2024) Special section: Left Feminisms [Open access]. Feminist Theory 0(0).

Sobande, F. (2023) “Real” emo: Mythologizing and marketing emo music [Open access]. Flow: a critical forum on media and culture.

Sobande, F., Saha, A., and Hesmondhalgh, D. (2023) How cultural workers address racism in the digital age [Open access]. Report on a research project funded by the Digital Futures at Work Research Centre.

Sobande, F. (2023) The digital nesting of Black feminism [Open access]. European Journal of Women’s Studies.

Sobande, F. (2023) I wear my sunglasses to dream: Nope, Black dreaming, and grains of grief. The Arrow: A Journal of Wakeful Society, Culture & Politics.

Sobande, F. (2023) Black media nostalgia in Britain [Open access]. Cultural Studies 38(3): 434–453.

Emejulu, A. and Sobande, F. (2023) Intersectional vulnerabilities and the banality of harm: The dangerous desires of women of color activists [Open access]. Meridians.

Sobande, F. (2023) 20 Feet from Stardom and a long way from equality [Open access]. Films for the Feminist Classroom.

All artwork by Chris Manson

Sobande, F., Hesmondhalgh D. and Saha, A. (2023) Black, Brown and Asian cultural workers, creativity and activism - the ambivalence of digital self-branding practices [Open access]. The Sociological Review.

Sobande, F. and Basu, M. (2023) “Beyond BAME, WOC, and ‘political blackness’”: diasporic digital communing practices. [Open access]. Communication, Culture & Critique.

Sobande, F., Kanai, A. and Zeng, N. (2022) The hypervisibility and discourses of ‘wokeness’ in digital culture [Open access]. Media, Culture & Society.

Sobande, F. and Klein, B. (2022) “Come and get a taste of normal”: Advertising, consumerism and the Coronavirus pandemic [Open access]. European Journal of Cultural Studies.

Rosa-Salas, M. and Sobande, F. (2022) Hierarchies of knowledge about intersectionality in marketing theory and practice. Marketing Theory. [Open access post-print version available here]

Sobande, F., Williams, S. and Bishop, S. (2022) Editors’ introduction: the twentieth anniversary issue of Feminist Media Studies. Feminist Media Studies, 21(8): 1265–1269.

bruce, k., Walcott, R., Kihoro Mackay, K., Osei, K., lasade-anderson, t. and Sobande, F. (2022) Black feminist and digital media studies in Britain. Feminist Media Studies. [Open access post-print version available here]

Sobande, F. (2022) The celebrity whitewashing of Black Lives Matter and social injustices. Celebrity Studies.

Sobande, F. and Emejulu, A. (2021) The Black Feminism Remix Lab: On Black feminist joy, ambivalence, and futures [Open access]. Culture, Theory and Critique.

Sobande, F. (2021) By us, for us? Past and present Black feminist publishing narratives and routes. Women: a cultural review.

Sobande, F. and Wells, J. R. (2021) The poetic identity work and sisterhood of Black women becoming academics. Gender, Work and Organization. [Open access post-print version available here]

Sobande, F. (2021) Screening Black Lives Matter: On-screen discourses, distortions, and depictions of Black Lives Matter. Feminist Media Studies.

Sobande, F. (2021) The internet’s “transnational” boyfriend: digital (re)presentations of celebrity men. Feminist Media Studies. [Open access post-print version available here]

Sobande, F. (2021) Spectacularized and branded digital (re)presentations of Black people and Blackness [Open access]. Television & New Media, 22(2): 131–146.

Mimoun, L., Trujillo-Torres, L. and Sobande, F. (2021) Social emotions and the legitimation of the fertility technology market [Open access]. Journal of Consumer Research. DOI: 10.1093/jcr/ucab043.

Sobande, F., Schoonejans, A., Johnson, G.D., Thomas, K.D. and Harrison, A.K. (2021) Enacting anti-racist visualities through photo-dialogues on race in Paris. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, 40(2): 65–179.

hill, l-r. and Sobande, F. (2020) (Re)viewing race, the marketplace, and public space through the lens of photography. Journal of Marketing Management, 36(13-14): 1169–1177. DOI:

Sobande, F. and Osei, K. (2020) An African City: Black women’s creativity, pleasure, diasporic (dis)connections and resistance through aesthetic and media practices and scholarship. Communication, Culture & Critique, 13(2): 204–221.

Sobande, F. (2020) “We're all in this together”: Commodified notions of connection, care and community in brand responses to COVID-19 [Open access]. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 23(6): 1033–1037.

Sobande, F., Fearfull, A. and Brownlie, D. (2020) Resisting media marginalisation: Black women’s digital content and collectivity. Consumption Markets & Culture, 23(5): 413–428. [Open access post-print version available here]

Poole S.M., Grier S.A., Thomas K.D., Sobande, F., Ekpo, A.E., Torres, L.T., Addington, L.A., Weekes-Laidlow, M. and Henderson, G.R. (2020) Operationalizing critical race theory in the marketplace. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing. December 2020.

Thomas, K.D., Davis, J.F., Wilson, J.A.J., and Sobande, F. (2020) Repetition or reckoning: confronting racism and racial dynamics in 2020 [Open access]. Journal of Marketing Management, 36 (13-14): 1153–1168.

Linabary, J. R., Cruz, J.M., Allen, B.J., Chalupa, J.A., Dempsey, S.E., Glenn, C.L., Harris, K.L., Long, Z., McDonald, J., Musleh, S., Oktaviana, F.H., Parker, P.S. and Sobande, F. (2020) Envisioning more equitable and just futures: Feminist organizational communication in theory and praxis. Management Communication Quarterly.

Sobande, F. (2020) Woke-washing: "Intersectional" femvertising and branding “woke” bravery. European Journal of Marketing, 54(11): 2723–2745. [Open access post-print version available here]

Sobande, F. (2019) Awkward Black girls and postfeminist possibilities: representing millennial Black women on television in Chewing Gum and Insecure. Critical Studies in Television, 14(4): 435–450. [Open access post-print version available here]

Sobande, F. (2019) Memes, digital remix culture and (re)mediating British politics and public life. IPPR Progressive Review, 26(2): 151–160.

Sobande, F. (2019) How to get away with authenticity: Viola Davis and the intersections of Blackness, naturalness, femininity and relatability. Celebrity Studies, 10(3): 396–410. [Open access post-print version available here]

Sobande, F. (2019) Femvertising and fast fashion: Feminist advertising or fauxminist marketing messages?. International Journal of Fashion Studies, 6(1): 104–113.

Sobande, F., Mimoun, L. and Trujillo Torres, L. (2019) Soldiers and superheroes needed! Masculine archetypes and constrained commodification in the sperm donation market. Marketing Theory, 20(1): 65–84. [Open access post-print version available here]

Sobande, F. (2018) Accidental academic activism – Intersectional and (un)intentional feminist resistance [Open access]. Journal of Applied Social Theory – Special Edition: Futures and Fractures in Feminist & Queer Education, 1 (2): 83–101.

Sobande, F. (2017) Watching me watching you: Black women in Britain on YouTube. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 20(6): 655–671. [Open access post-print version available here]

 
 

POETRY

Painting by Francesca Sobande

Painting by Francesca Sobande

  • Sobande, F. (2024) Branching. Black Oot Here.

  • Sobande, F. (2024) Seafoam. Black Oot Here.

  • Sobande, F. (2024) Winged. Black Oot Here.

  • Sobande, F. (2024) Nestling. Black Oot Here.

  • Sobande, F. (2024) Nights. Black Oot Here.

  • Sobande, F. (2023) Elixir O Dreams. Black Oot Here.

  • Sobande, F. (2021) Cariad [Love]. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers.

  • Sobande, F. (2021) Green velvet. GEM Collective.

  • Sobande, F. (2021) Haar. GEM Collective.

  • Sobande, F. (2021) Slow. GEM Collective.

  • Sobande, F. (2021) Late falling leaves. GEM Collective.

 
 

Artwork by Chris Manson

Sobande, F. (2021) CGI influencers: when the ‘people’ we follow on social media aren’t human. The Conversation.

Sobande, F., Schoonejans, A., Johnson, G.D., Thomas, K.D., and Harrison, A.K. (2021) Strolling with a question. Independent Social Research Foundation Bulletin Issue XXIII: Race and Markets, pp. 13–26.

Sobande, F. (2021) The politics of digital peace, play, and privacy during the COVID-19 pandemic: Between digital engagement, enclaves, and entitlement. The Sociological Review.

Sobande, F. (2021) “Are we all in this together?”: Reflecting on a year of COVID-19 marketing messages. Developing Economics.

Sobande, F. (2021) On year 1 of “(Me)me, Myself, and I” and digitally mediated grief. Margins.

Sobande, F. (2020) On digital remixing and regulations. Margins.

Sobande, F. (2020) The revolution will not be branded: Social struggle, commodified. Disegno.

Sobande, F. (2020) On “(me)me, myself, and I: The power and politics of digital remix culture and online inequalities”. Margins.

Sobande, F. (2020) On Black women’s trauma and The Haunting of Bly Manor. Margins.

Sobande, F. (2020) Brands’ optical “allyship” and opportunistic responses to Black social justice activism. Discover Society.

Sobande, F. (2020) Between digital labour, leisure and liberation. Journalism, Media and Culture - the official JOMEC school blog.

Sobande, F. (2019) Stereotypical and (super)heroic representations of masculinity in sperm donation marketing. Discover Society.

Sobande, F. (2018) On Black girlhood: “Bone Black” by bell hooks and “Zami” by Audre Lorde. Project Myopia.

Sobande, F. (2018) On cultural appropriation. Real Review #7. 

Sobande, F. (2018) Fenty beauty: An inclusive beauty brand is born. In Media Res.

Sobande, F. (2017) “YouTube has become a really important place”: Black women’s self-representation and solidarity online. British Sociological Association.

BOOK CHAPTERS and guides

Sobande, F. (2024) Tell Tim Chalamet to tweet at me: Timothée Chalamet’s social media silence, presence, and performed (b)romance with Armie Hammer. In E. Lamberti and M. Williams (eds.) Call Me By Your Name – Perspectives on the Film.

Sobande, F. (2024) Black audiences, brand voices, and affective communities. In A. Hill and P. Lunt (eds.) The Routledge Companion to Media Audiences. London: Routledge.

Sobande, F. (2022) Thinking about intersectionality in online research methods. SAGE [Online].

Sobande, F. (2022) Locating social media in Black digital studies. In D. Rosen (ed.) The Social Media Debate: Unpacking the Social, Psychological, and Cultural Effects of Social Media. New York: Routledge. [Open access version available here]

Sobande, F. (2022) Black women’s digital media and marketplace experiences: between buying, branding, and Black Lives Matter. In P. Maclaran, L. Stevens and O. Kravets (eds.) The Routledge Companion to Marketing and Feminism. London: Routledge.

Sobande, F. (2019) The commodification and critique of inter-racial relationships on YouTube [Open access]. In G.D. Johnson, K.D. Thomas, S.A. Grier and A.K. Harrison (eds.) Race in the Marketplace – Crossing Critical Boundaries, pp. 107–120. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. [Open access here].

Sobande, F. (2019) Dissecting depictions of Black masculinity in Get Out. In S. Holland, R. Shail and S. Gerrard (eds.) Gender and Contemporary Horror In Film, pp. 237–250. Bingley: Emerald.

Sobande, F. (2019) Re-meme-bering, romanticizing and reframing the Obamas online. In R.A. Lind (ed.) Race, Gender, Class, Media (4th edition), pp.47–50. New York: Routledge.

Sobande, F. (2018) Managing media as parental race-work: (Re)mediating children’s Black identities. In S.N.N. Cross, C. Ruvalcaba, A. Venkatesh and R.W. Belk (eds.) Consumer Culture Theory Vol: 19., pp.37–53. Bingley: Emerald.

Sobande, F. (2018) Praising, erasing, replacing and race-ing Girls – Intersectional online critiques and the ascent of Insecure. In V. McCollum and G. Monteverde (eds.) HBO’S New Original Voices: Race, Class, Gender, Sexuality and Power, pp.99–114. London: Routledge.

Sobande, F. (2018) Intersectional digital dynamics and racially profiled Black celebrities. In S. Flynn and A. Mackay (eds.) Surveillance, Race, Culture, pp.171–190. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Sobande, F. (2018) Black feminist contributions to decolonizing the curriculum. In J. Cupples and R. Grosfoguel (eds.) Unsettling Eurocentrism in the Westernized University, pp.87–99. London: Routledge.

hill, l.r. and Sobande, F. (2018) In our own words: Organising and experiencing exhibitions as Black women and women of colour in Scotland. In R. Finkel and B. Sharp (eds.) Accessibility, Inclusion, and Diversity in Critical Event Studies, pp.107–121. London: Routledge.