Dr. Jack Black BSc, MSc, PhD

My PhD examined the construction, representation and framing of British identity in UK (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales) and Commonwealth (Australia, Canada, New Zealand) newspaper coverage of the 2012 Diamond Jubilee and London Olympic Games.

This unique sample was used to explore the impact of the former British Empire in post-imperial constructions of Britishness, and how this history has been negotiated in accordance with contemporary UK identity politics and the former ‘old dominions’.

Since completing my PhD thesis, I have published widely within the disciplines of sociology, media and communications and cultural studies.

These publications have continued to explore my interests in identity, representation and history, with particular attention given to examining how representations of 'the past’ are reflected in mediated portrayals of collective memory.

This has included studies of recent political events, such as the 2016 EU referendum; sporting mega-/media-events, including, the Women’s FIFA World Cup and Commonwealth Games; and, film and television portrayals of British multiculturalism.

Sociology, media and communications, national identity and nationalism, social theory.

Academy of Sport and Physical Activity

Health And Wellbeing

Sport Studies

Sport Studies

• Sport and the Media
• Research Matters 2
• Sport Journalism
• Assessment and Employability Skills
• Undergraduate Dissertation Tutor

Journal articles

Black, J., & Cherrington, J. (2021). Temporal Ontology in Ecology: Developing an ecological awareness through time, temporality and the past-present parallax. Environmental Philosophy. http://doi.org/10.5840/envirophil202135102

Black, J. (2020). Sport and the ‘National Thing’: Exploring Sport’s Emotive Significance. Sport in Society. http://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2020.1865928

Black, J. (2020). ‘I Am (big) M(Other)’: Lacan’s big Other and the Role of Cynicism in Grant Sputore’s I Am Mother. Free Associations: Psychoanalysis and Culture, Media, Groups, Politics, (80), 121-131. http://doi.org/10.1234/fa.v0i80.372

Black, J. (2020). COVID-19: Approaching the In-Human. Contours: Journal of the SFU Humanities Institute, 10 (Fall). http://www.sfu.ca/content/dam/sfu/humanities-institute/Images/contours/issue10/10.5.pdf

Black, J. (2020). Reflexivity or orientation? Collective memories in the Australian, Canadian and New Zealand national press. Memory Studies. http://doi.org/10.1177/1750698017749978

Black, J. (2020). Retroactive causation and the temporal construction of news: contingency and necessity, content and form. Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory, 1-16. http://doi.org/10.1080/1600910x.2020.1792957

Black, J. (2020). “A form of socially acceptable insanity”: Love, comedy and the digital in Her. Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society. http://doi.org/10.1057/s41282-020-00193-2

Black, J. (2020). COVID-19 and the Real Impossible. International Journal of Žižek Studies, 14 (2), 1-22. http://zizekstudies.org/index.php/IJZS/article/view/1173

Black, J. (2020). Football is “the most important of the least important things”: The Illusion of Sport and COVID-19. Leisure Sciences, 1-7. http://doi.org/10.1080/01490400.2020.1773989

Black, J., Fletcher, T., & Lake, R.J. (2020). ‘Success in Britain comes with an awful lot of small print’: Greg Rusedski and the precarious performance of national identity. Nations and Nationalism, 1-20. http://doi.org/10.1111/nana.12614

Cherrington, J., & Black, J. (2020). Spectres of nature in the trail building assemblage. International Journal of the Sociology of Leisure, 3 (1), 71-93. http://doi.org/10.1007/s41978-019-00048-w

Black, J., & Cherrington, J. (2020). ‘Nature doesn’t care that we’re there’: Re-Symbolizing Nature’s ‘Natural’ Contingency. International Journal of Žižek Studies, 14 (1), 1-26. http://zizekstudies.org/index.php/IJZS/article/view/1139

Whigham, S., & Black, J. (2019). London 2012, Glasgow 2014 and athletes as political symbols – the precarious positioning of athletes within the evolving contemporary politics of the United Kingdom. European Journal for Sport and Society. http://doi.org/10.1080/16138171.2019.1706249

Cherrington, J., & Black, J. (2019). Mountain bike trail building, ‘dirty’ work and a new terrestrial politics. World Futures: The Journal of New Paradigm Research. http://doi.org/10.1080/02604027.2019.1698234

Black, J. (2019). Grand Hotel Abyss: The Lives of the Frankfurt School. Rethinking Marxism, 31 (4), 532-535. http://doi.org/10.1080/08935696.2019.1650572

Black, J. (2019). “You ain’t gonna get away wit’ this, Django”: Fantasy, fiction and subversion in Quentin Tarantino’s, Django Unchained. Quarterly review of film and video. http://doi.org/10.1080/10509208.2019.1593026

Black, J. (2019). Conviviality and Parallax in David Olusoga’s Black and British: A Forgotten History. European Journal of Cultural Studies. http://doi.org/10.1177/1367549419844451

Black, J. (2018). From mood to movement: English nationalism, the European Union and taking back control. Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research. http://doi.org/10.1080/13511610.2018.1520080

Black, J. (2018). The subjective and objective violence of terrorism: analysing “British values” in newspaper coverage of the 2017 London Bridge attack. Critical Studies on Terrorism. http://doi.org/10.1080/17539153.2018.1498191

Cherrington, J., Black, J., & Tiller, N. (2018). Running away from the taskscape : ultramarathon as ‘dark ecology’. Annals of Leisure Research, 1-21. http://doi.org/10.1080/11745398.2018.1491800

Whigham, S., & Black, J. (2018). Glasgow 2014, the media and Scottish politics – the (post)imperial symbolism of the Commonwealth Games. The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 20 (2), 360-378. http://doi.org/10.1177/1369148117737279

Black, J. (2018). The United Kingdom and British Empire: A Figurational Approach. Rethinking History, 22 (1), 3-24. http://doi.org/10.1080/13642529.2017.1419446

Black, J., & Whigham, S. (2017). ‘Team GB’ or ‘Team Scotland’? Media representations of ‘Britishness’ and ‘Scottishness’ at London 2012 and Glasgow 2014. Journalism. http://doi.org/10.1177/1464884917736002

Black, J., & Fielding-Lloyd, B. (2017). Re-establishing the ‘outsiders’: English press coverage of the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. International Review for the Sociology of Sport. http://doi.org/10.1177/1012690217706192

Black, J. (2016). The reification of celebrity : global newspaper coverage of the death of David Bowie. International Review of Sociology, 27 (1), 202-224. http://doi.org/10.1080/03906701.2016.1254393

Black, J. (2016). 'As British as fish and chips': British newspaper representations of Mo Farah during the 2012 London Olympic Games. Media, Culture & Society, 38 (7), 979-996. http://doi.org/10.1177/0163443716635863

Black, J. (2016). Celebrating British multiculturalism, lamenting England/Britain’s past. Nations and Nationalism, 22 (4), 786-802. http://doi.org/10.1111/nana.12164

Maguire, J., Black, J., & Darlington, B. (2015). ‘The Day the Flame Came to Town’: The Olympic flame, symbol, community and commodification. Sociology of Sport Journal, 32 (2), 117-139. http://doi.org/10.1123/ssj.2014-0093

Black, J., & Ewen, N. (2013). Team GB, or no Team GB, that is the Question: Olympic football and the Post-War Crisis of Britishness. Sport in History, XXII, 302-324. https://doi.org/10.1080/17460263.2012.681357

Black, J., Lake, R.J., & Fletcher, T. (n.d.). An Unnerving Otherness: English Nationalism and Rusedski’s Smile. Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society.

Black, J. (n.d.). On Reflexive Racism: Disavowal, Deferment and the Lacanian Subject. Diacritics: a review of contemporary criticism.

Conference papers

Black, J. (2018). 'Is it bigger than the bread bin?': Parallax, Parapraxis and the Multicultural Representation of British Media Events. In Diversity within events, tourism and hospitality, Leeds, UK, 2018. http://www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/events/school-events/icreth-assemblies-it-is-bigger-than-the-bread-bin/

Black, J. (2018). Media, Memory and Sporting Mega-Events. In Changing the rules of the game? An interdisciplinary symposium examining the relationship between sport and media, Loughborough University, 16 May 2018 - 17 May 2018.

Black, J. (2017). Transcending sport: The reification of Muhammad Ali. In Ali in Un/Expected Spaces, University of Turku, Turku, Finland, 17 May 2017 - 19 May 2017. https://www.utu.fi/en/units/jmc/conferences/Ali_in_Un-Expected_Spaces/Pages/home.aspx

Black, J. (2013). 'Narratives of Empire': An investigation into the English national press coverage of the 2012 London Olympic Ceremonies. In Olympic Legacies: International Conference – Impacts of Mega-Events on Cities, University of East London, London, UK, 4 September 2013 - 6 September 2013.

Black, J. (2013). 'Narratives of Empire': An investigation into the English national press coverage of the 2012 London Olympic Ceremonies’. In Britishness in the 21st Century, Keele University, Keele, UK, 19 June 2013.

Black, J. (2013). 'Narratives of Empire': An investigation into the English national press coverage of the 2012 London Olympic Ceremonies. In BSA Teaching Group Regional Day Conference, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK, 15 June 2013.

Book chapters

Black, J., & Cherrington, J. (2020). Community as Hyperobject: Exploring the ‘Spectral Plains’ of Leisure. In Glover, T., & Sharpe, E. (Eds.) Leisure and its Communities: Rethinking Mutuality, Collective Expression, and Belonging in the New Century. Routledge

Black, J. (2015). Portraying Britain’s past: English national newspaper coverage of the 2012 London Olympic ceremonies. In Poynter, G., Viehoff, V., & Li, Y. (Eds.) The London Olympics and Urban Development: The Mega-Event City. (pp. 320-334). Abingdon: Routledge

Books

Black, J. (2021). Race, Racism and Political Correctness in Comedy A Psychoanalytic Exploration. Routledge.

Reports

Matthews, C.R., Channon, A., & Black, J. (2015). Learning & Teaching in Sociology - A Report by the British Sociological Association. The British Sociological Association (BSA).

Internet Publications

Black, J. (2021). Suburban Superheroes: Utopia and Trauma in WandaVision. https://cstonline.net/suburban-superheroes-utopia-and-trauma-in-wandavision-by-jack-black/

Black, J. (2020). Devs and the Parallax Ending. https://cstonline.net/devs-and-the-parallax-ending-by-jack-black/

Black, J. (2020). Mr. Robot – Part Three: ‘...the voyeurs who think they aren’t a part of this...’: Mr. Robot and the Subject. https://cstonline.net/mr-robot-part-three-the-voyeurs-who-think-they-arent-a-part-of-this-mr-robot-and-the-subject-by-jack-black/

Black, J. (2020). Mr Robot - Part Two: ‘Run Away with Me’ – Content, Form and Romantic Failure, an Ideological Critique (Scene Analysis). https://cstonline.net/mr-robot-part-two-run-away-with-me-content-form-and-romantic-failure-an-ideological-critique-scene-analysis-by-jack-black/

Black, J. (2020). Mr. Robot – Part One: ‘Our Democracy has been hacked’ – Critiquing Mr. Robot. https://cstonline.net/mr-robot-part-one-our-democracy-has-been-hacked-critiquing-mr-robot-by-jack-black/

Black, J. (2020). From Fight Club to Gaze – Making Sense of Sam Esmail’s Mr. Robot, An Introduction. https://cstonline.net/from-fight-club-to-gaze-making-sense-of-sam-esmails-mr-robot-an-introduction-by-jack-black/

Black, J. (2020). Watchmen’s Parallax View – handling past traumas and present tensions. https://cstonline.net/watchmens-parallax-view-handling-past-traumas-and-present-tensions-by-jack-black/

Whigham, S., & Black, J. (2018). Glasgow 2014, the media and Scottish politics – the (post)imperial symbolism of the Commonwealth Games and the push for ‘Empire 2.0’. http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/the-2014-commonwealth-games-in-the-media/