Her research program lies at the intersection of culture, patronage, and markets. Banks will be at Stanford University as a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) in 2018-2019. With a focus on the African Diaspora, she studies the determinants, consequences, and meanings of cultural patronage and the processes underlying the emergence and growth of cultural markets. Her most recent book (Routledge Press) is Represent: Art and Identity Among the Black Upper-Middle Class.