Nicholas Boston

E-mail Address: nicholas.boston@lehman.cuny.edu
Phone Number: 718-960-7723
Office: Carman 271
Rank: Associate Professor
Degrees and Sources of Degrees: B.A., McGill University; M.S., Grad. School of Journalism, Columbia University; Ph.D., University of Cambridge.

I am Associate Professor of Media Sociology. I teach in the Media and Communication Studies (MCS), and Film and Television Studies (FTS) majors. I have also taught in the Lehman Scholars Program (LSP), and Macaulay Honors College (MHC) at Lehman. My academic research to date is located at the nexus of digital media, migration, identity, and intimacy. I also write frequently on these topics for the popular media. I hold a M.S. in journalism from the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Cambridge, where I am a Life Member of King’s College. I have been the recipient of multiple fellowships, from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the CUNY Research Foundation, the Canada Council for the Arts, and others. I am, since 2013, Visiting Professor in the Department of Communications at John Cabot University, in Rome, Italy. I have been DAAD Visiting Professor in the Institute for Media and Communication Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin, Visiting Scholar at the American Academy in Rome, Michaelmas Visiting Scholar in the Department of Sociology at the University of Cambridge, Visiting Scholar at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), McCloy Fellow in Arts Journalism in Berlin from the American Council on Germany, Faculty Fellow at the Italian Diaspora Summer Studies Seminar (IDSSS) of the Calandra Institute at Queens College, and Faculty Fellow at the Center for Place, Culture, and Politics (CPCP) at the CUNY Graduate Center. My book is The Windrush Poles: Memory, Migration and Genealogy (Bloomsbury 2027), and my journalism and commentary have appeared in BBC News, Columbia Journalism Review, The Conversation, HuffPost, The Independent, Salon, Vogue, and others.

Research Interests

Cosmopolitanism, Identity, Intimacy, Labor and Organization, Media Industry Studies, Digital Media, Black Europe, Black British and Windrush Studies

Recent and Selected Academic Publications

“We don't need another hero: Un-archiving August Agboola Browne (1895-1976)” in Disrupting Archives. Eds. Thục Linh Nguyễn Vũ and Katarzyna Nowak. Forthcoming in 2027.

“‘How do I put this gently?’: Articulating the link between racial selectivity in the sexual market and neighborhood selection in the residential market of a global city.” Communication, Culture and Critique 17(3): 221-224, 2024, doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/ccc/tcae033.

“‘I Would Like to be a Spoiled, Rich, White Girl’: Trans Genealogy, (Self-)Naming and the Entombed Italian American Subjectivity of Venus Xtravaganza” Pp. 145-168 in Spaghetti Sissies: Queering Italian American Media, eds. Julia Heim and Sole Anatrone, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023, doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-10197-7_8   

“Playing in the Dark with Ali: Portraiture, Race, and Remembrance in Karol Radziszewski’s Painting of August Agboola Browne.” Central Europe 19(1): 65-87, 2021, doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/14790963.2021.1921999

“Sex, Power, and Organizational Culture in the Glossy Magazine Industry.” Pp. 77-91 in The Handbook of Magazine Studies, eds. Miglena Sternadori and Tim Holmes, Hoboken: Wiley, 2020, doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119168102.ch6

“Guido Culture and Italian American Youth: From Bensonhurst to Jersey Shore.” Review, Italian American Review 10(2): 204-208, Bloomington: University of Illinois Press, 2020, doi: https://doi.org/10.5406/italamerrevi.10.2.0204

“Hyper Sexual, Hyper Masculine? Gender, Race and Sexuality in the Identities of Contemporary Black Men.” Review, Tijdschrift voor Genderstudies (Journal of Gender Studies) 20(1): 92-95, Amsterdam University Press, 2017, doi: https://doi.org/10.5117/TVGN2017.1.RAHB

“Libidinal Cosmopolitanism: The Case of Digital Sexual Encounters in Post-Enlargement Europe” Pp. 291-312 in Postcolonial Transitions in Europe: Contexts, Practices and Politics, eds. Sandra Ponzanesi and Gianmaria Colpani, London and New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016, doi: http://doi.org/10.5040/9798881812928.ch-015

“People of Color Mobilization in LGBT Movements in the Netherlands and the United States” co-authored with Jan Willem Duyendak, Pp. 135-48 in The Research Companion to Lesbian and Gay Activism, eds. David Paternotte and Manon Tremblay, Farnham, UK: Ashgate, 2015, doi: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315613147

Recent and Selected Journalism and Commentary

“A Founding Father’s Queer Legacy: Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings’ family tree keeps getting more complicated and colorful.” Salon. July 28, 2026.

“New documents raise questions about African immigrant who became a Polish WWII hero.” Notes from Poland. Dec. 10, 2025.

“‘An embarrassment of riches’: ‘The Gay Harlem Renaissance’ opens at The New York Historical.” GCN. Oct. 17, 2025.

“Challenging the icons: Angela Davis receives CLAGS award.” GCN. June 11, 2025.

“‘Speaks to the moment we are in’: Panelists reexamine Marlon Riggs’ ‘Tongues Untied’ three decades later.” GCN. Feb. 19, 2025.

“Brooklyn Public Library zooms in on James Baldwin’s decade in Istanbul.” GCN. Jan. 20, 2025.

“Morgan Library honors the dual life of inaugural director Belle da Costa Greene.” GCN. Nov. 14, 2024.

“Stop making sense: Chella Man at Hannah Traore Gallery.” GCN. February 28, 2024.

New York Press Association “Better Newspaper” Award of Excellence (2^nd Place for Coverage of the Arts 2024)

“Ivor Cummings: the forgotten gay mentor of the Windrush generation” in Windrush 75, ed. Jo Adetunji, The Conversation, 2023, doi: https://doi.org/10.64628/AB.yjrkryvqu

“‘Calls from Moscow’ follows four queer Cuban migrants holed up in Russia.” GCN. March 3, 2023.

“A look back for Wolfgang Tillmans.” GCN. Jan. 3, 2023.

“Playing black music at the Queen’s funeral would be a fitting tribute.” The Voice (UK).
September 18, 2022.

“The Underlying Lesbophobia of Will Smith’s Slap.” Gay City News. April 1, 2022.

“How the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Created the African Diaspora.” The History Channel. February 3, 2022.

“What Gymnast Nadia Comăneci's Perfect 10 Meant to Me.” Vogue. July 2021.

“August Browne: The Nigeria-born man who joined the Polish resistance.” BBC News. Oct. 3,
2020. Named to the “BBC Best of 2020” list.

“I Went To Kamala Harris’ High School. Here’s Why That Matters.” The Independent. Oct. 7,
2020.

“Mangrove, the Second of Steve McQueen’s Small Axe, a Series Dedicated to George Floyd.”
Vogue. Sept. 25, 2020.

“How the defacement of two statues could lead to Poland’s reckoning with its Black history.”
Calvert Journal (now New East Digital Archive). Oct. 9, 2020. (Published in Polish in Krytyka Polityczna and Le Monde diplomatique.)

“The Home Office failed black Britons – the Windrush scandal is a ‘shameful stain’ on the nation.” The Independent. Nov. 26, 2020.

“The term ‘Windrush generation’ has become synonymous with ‘victim.’ They deserve to be depicted as the victors they are.” The Independent. Oct. 30, 2020.

“Symbol of the past, model for the future: the African immigrant who became a Warsaw Uprising hero.” Notes from Poland. July 31, 2020.

“Who Is the Face of Italy? The Movement to Reform Italian Citizenship Law Makes a Fashion Statement.” The Root. Feb. 27, 2020.

“Welcome to What You’ll Call America.” Gay City News. Dec. 31, 2019.

New York Press Association “Better Newspaper” Award of Excellence (2^nd Place for Coverage of the Arts 2020)

Media

I have been interviewed in several media outlets, including BBC News, NBC Channel 4, The Takeaway (WNYC podcast), and 580 CFRA Ottawa (Canada)

Some Courses Taught

• MCS 214: Introduction to Media Studies and Digital Culture
• MCS 244: Communication in Society
• MCS 307: Media Industries I
• MCS 308: Media Industries II
• MCS 351: The Anthropology of Media
• MCS 481: Capstone/Independent Project
• MCS 491: Honors Tutorial
• MCS 492: Honors Colloquium
• FTS 371: Television and Cultivation Theory
• LSP 350: Who Do You Think You Are?: Genealogy, Media, and the Search for Ancestral Meaning