Patricia A. Banks (/Spelman College B.A.) is a sociologist whose research program lies at the intersection of culture, consumption, and markets. In 2018-2019 Banks was in . With a focus on the African Diaspora, she studies the determinants, consequences, and meanings of cultural consumption and the processes underlying the emergence and growth of cultural markets. Some of the topics she explores are the bi-directional relationship between art collecting and identity, structural and cultural explanations of museum philanthropy, and the influence of consecration on the art market. At Ӱ̳ College she is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and a faculty member in the Program in Africana Studies and the Program in Entrepreneurship, Organizations, and Society.
Banks is author of the books (Routledge 2019) and (Routledge 2010). She has published articles in journals such as Poetics, the Journal of Consumer Culture, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Cultural Sociology, and Qualitative Sociology. Her research involves various methods including in-depth interviews, visual analysis, participant observation, and archival research. is the first major empirical and theoretical analysis of art collecting as a practice of black identity construction. She is currently working on the book Race, Ethnicity, and Consumption: A Sociological View (Under Contract Routledge) where she brings sociological theory to bear on race and ethnicity in the for-profit and non-profit marketplaces. In other research projects Banks is investigating philanthropy at African American museums, corporate support for the arts, and the global market for contemporary African art.
Banks has been a , and received fellowships or grants from institutions such as the UNCF/Mellon Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, and the American Association of University Women. She was recently elected to serve a three year term as the Secretary-Treasurer of the Sociology of Consumers and Consumption section of the American Sociological Association. Banks is also an elected and has served in an elected position as Secretary-Treasurer of the American Sociological Association Section on Race, Gender and Class. Her work with students has been recognized by a teaching award from the and election as the Junior Faculty Baccalaureate Speaker at Ӱ̳ College. Banks has lectured and given talks on issues related to art and culture internationally and nationally. She is also the creator of the which is a digital archive that allows researchers and other users to search for over 300 African American museums and related organizations across the United States. For more information about how her research on art collecting and racial identity has been incorporated into the sociology of art see Sociology Looks at the Arts (Routledge 2014).
Selected Courses
Selected Past Courses
- Art and Society (Ӱ̳ College)
- Black Cultural Production and Consumption (Ӱ̳ College)
- Class in the Black Community (Ӱ̳ College)
- Foodies: Taste and Culture in a Global Society (Ӱ̳ College)
- Introduction to Qualitative Research and Data Analysis (Ӱ̳ College)
- Introduction to Sociology (Ӱ̳ College)
- Race in America (Ӱ̳ College)
- The Business of Culture: Marketing and Selling Symbolic Goods (Ӱ̳ College)
Selected Past Independent Studies
- The Market for Art by Contemporary African Artists: Artist Histories (Independent Study, Ӱ̳ College)
- Fashion, Business, and Society (Independent Study, Ӱ̳ College)
- Social Entrepreneurship at Ӱ̳ College (Independent Study, Ӱ̳ College)
- African Immigrants and Assimilation in the United States (Independent Study, Ӱ̳ College)
Areas of Expertise
sociology of culture; sociology of art; consumers and consumption; race and ethnicity; philanthropy; qualitative methods
Education
- Ph.D., Harvard University
- A.M., Harvard University
- B.A., Spelman College (valedictorian, summa sum laude)
