Research Interests
- Cultural Studies
- Black Studies
- Queer Theory
- Black France
- Popular Music
- Worldmaking/Prefigurative Politics
- Black Feminist Thought
- Affect
Dr Sophie Marie Niang
Dr Sophie Marie Niang is Lumley Fellow in European Cultural Studies at Magdalene.
Sophie Marie Niang's research sits at the intersection of cultural studies, black studies and queer theory, interrogating the emancipatory and revolutionary possibilities contained in minoritarian cultural productions. Her work is published in Feminist Review, Sociology Compass and Sociology.
Her doctoral research explored black worldmaking practices in contemporary France. In a national context where dominant republican universalism stifles the recognition of the very existence of race and racism, this project asked how black postcolonial citizens resist their oppression in the present and sketch out alternative possibilities of being and belonging in France for the future. These two research questions were excavated across three main locations of analysis: rap, black women’s self-narratives in film and literature, and afrofeminist organising and theatre performances. This project is currently being developed into a proposal for an academic monograph.
Dr Niang's postdoctoral research, tentatively entitled "The only means of screaming that we are: musical production, nightlife and black postcolonial worldmaking in Paris (1970s-1980s)", builds on her previous work on music, identity and worldmaking to explore the French capital as a crucial site of encounter, production and consumption for West and Central African music in the 1970s and 1980s, investigating the history of labels and studios based in Paris and the artists they produced at the time, as well as the history of African nightclubs and music venues during these two decades. Using a combination of archival research, oral history interviews and critical listening methodologies, this project seeks to understand the role music and nightlife played both in migrant community building and political organising across the two decades.
Beyond her individual research projects, Dr Niang is committed to collective research and knowledge-making. She is involved in two CRASSH research networks, Ambivalent Archives and Catalysts for Decolonisation, and has been involved in co-organising various conferences and seminar series (Writing as Repair/Repair as Writing, 2023; Trans*National Black Feminisms, 2022; Moving (across) Boundaries; 2022).
Finally, Dr Niang teaches across all years of undergraduate studies in the Sociology department and the French department at the University of Cambridge, and supervises final year dissertation projects.
Qualifications
- PhD in Sociology, University of Cambridge
- MA in Gender, Media, and Culture, Goldsmiths, University of London
- BA in Human, Social and Political Sciences (Sociology & Social Anthropology), University of Cambridge
Professional Affiliations
- British Sociological Association
- Ambivalent Archives (CRASSH)
- Catalysts for Decolonisation (CRASSH)
Selected Publications
Niang, S.M. (2024) ‘In Defence of What’s There: Notes on Scavenging as Methodology’ Feminist Review 136. https://doi.org/10.1177/01417789231222606.
Niang, S.M. (2024) “S’enrager sans se consumer: Afrofeminist flamboyance as refusal in contemporary France,” in Rage: Affect and Resistance in French and Francophone Culture and Thought: 1960–2020, London: Peter Lang.
Niang, S.M. (2023) ‘The Sound of Liminality: Afrotrap, Affective Listening and the (re)invention of Afropean identities.’ Sociology Compass 17(9) https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.13116.
Meghji, A. and Niang, S.M. (2021) “Between Post-Racial Ideology and Provincial Universalisms: Critical Race Theory, Decolonial Thought and COVID-19 in Britain.” Sociology, 56(1), 131–147.https://doi.org/10.1177/00380385211011575 (work was equally divided between authors)