Her research interests are broad and interdisciplinary, focusing on critical race, gender, and legal studies; transnational black feminism; black masculinities; visual and popular culture; and literature of the African Diaspora in the Americas. Many of these research areas intersect in Drake’s manuscript, Transnational Negotiations: Critical Appropriations in Black Women’s Cultural Productions (under review), and in her second project, Imagining Grace: Black Men’s Lives Between the Poles. Drake has published numerous articles on race and gender in literature, film, and culture. She serves on the editorial board for Spectrum: A Journal on Black Men.