Dr. Jack Black

I am an interdisciplinary researcher working across sport, media and cultural studies, sociology, and critical theory. My research is distinguished by its use of psychoanalysis to examine the cultural and political forces that shape contemporary social life.

My work explores questions of representation, subjectivity, ideology, and inequality, with particular attention to race and racism, nationalism, digital media, online harms, artificial intelligence, and the cultural significance of sport. Across these areas, I examine how identities and social antagonisms are produced through media discourse; how digital platforms facilitate the circulation of hostility and abuse; and how unconscious attachments, fantasies, and forms of enjoyment sustain political and cultural investments.

I completed my undergraduate and postgraduate studies at Loughborough University, where I received a BSc in Sport Science with Management, an MSc with Distinction in the Sociology of Sport, and a PhD in Sociology. Before joining Sheffield Hallam University in 2014, I held teaching positions in media and communication at the University of Leicester, in the sociology of sport at Loughborough University, and in sport, society, and culture at Nottingham Trent University.

I am the author of "The Subject of Sport: Exploring Sport’s Psychoanalytic Significance" (Bloomsbury, forthcoming), "The Psychosis of Race: A Lacanian Approach to Racism and Racialization" (Routledge, 2023), and "Race, Racism and Political Correctness in Comedy: A Psychoanalytic Exploration" (Routledge, 2021). I am also co-editor, with Joseph S. Reynoso, of "Sport and Psychoanalysis: What Sport Reveals about Our Unconscious Desires, Fantasies, and Fears" (Lexington Books, 2024), which was nominated for Best Edited Book at the 2025 Gradiva Awards, and co-editor, with Jim Cherrington, of "Sport and Physical Activity in Catastrophic Environments" (Routledge, 2022).

My research has been published in journals including "New Media & Society", "Theory, Culture & Society", "Media, Culture & Society", "Journalism Studies", "Ethnic and Racial Studies", "Feminist Media Studies", "Social Science Computer Review", "The Communication Review", and "Communication & Sport".

My work on the "Tackling Online Hate in Football" project, a major international project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Irish Research Council, combined qualitative research with computational methods. The project examined how online hate is produced, circulated, and amplified across digital platforms and has subsequently informed professional training and guidance developed with organisations such as Sky Sports News, Kick It Out, and Fair Game.

My research has also contributed to public and policy debate. I have provided evidence concerning online abuse and inequality in sport to the United Nations Human Rights Council, the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, and the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Football.

I am Senior Editor for the "Sport and Psychoanalysis (Cogent Social Sciences)" and Associate Editor for both the "International Journal of the Sociology of Leisure" and "Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society".

Through these roles, my publications, and my wider collaborative and public-facing work, I contribute to the development of interdisciplinary research across psychoanalysis, media and cultural studies, sociology, and critical digital scholarship.