Black Sexual Politics: Exploring Notions of Sex and Sexuality amongst Black Men in the UK - August 2025 - April 2026
Dr Shardia Briscoe-Palmer has been awarded a British Academy Small Grant for her project Black Sexual Politics: Exploring Notions of Sex and Sexuality amongst Black Men in the UK.
The sexualisation of the Black body, though explored in depth, offers little way into the experiences of Black male bodies and their sexual agency. However, with little regard toward Black male bodies – historical or present- constructions of Black masculinities via racialised notions of sex and sexuality are lost.
This project examines how ideas surrounding the sexualisation of the black body has placed a legacy of fearmongering yet a fetishisation of black men’s sexuality. It will lead to several scholarly outputs, a programme of public engagement which collates lived experiences with photographic recording and an oral history collection with narratives on feared and fetished.
The project will conduct archival research on recorded displays of Black sexual politics in a historical context, which are often forgotten. This activity will start to shape narratives of Black Sexual Politics and structure content to feed forward into other project activities. The project will also conduct focus groups to gather lived and shared experiences of Black sexual politics.
Finally, this project will conclude with a programme of public engagement, through an interactive symposium inclusive of a photographic exhibition display, Spring 2026. It will investigate links between fearmongering and fetishisation of the Black male body and unpack themes including hypermasculinity, hypersexuality and (homo)sexuality.
Posted on Tuesday 26th August 2025