Publications and Presentations
Publications that can be directly accessed from this site are marked with a *
Otherwise contact me and I might be able to send you a copy.
Articles in scholarly journals:
[with Fabien Hein] ‘Études Metal: Metal Studies: Une Bibliographe’ in Copyright Volume! 5/2 2006 19-32
‘The ‘Failure’ of Youth Culture: Music, Politics and Reflexivity in the Black Metal Scene’ in The European Journal of Cultural Studies, 7/1 2004, pp 95-111
‘I Hate This Fucking Country’: Dealing with the Global and the Local in the Israeli Extreme Metal Scene’ Critical Studies 19: Music, Popular Culture, Identities, 2002 pp 133-151
‘‘Roots’?: The Relationship Between the Global and the Local Within the Global Extreme Metal Scene’ in Popular Music 19/1, 2000, pp 13-30
Chapters contributed to scholarly books:
‘End of the World Music: Is Extreme Metal the Sound of the Apocalypse,’ in The End All Around US: Apocalyptic Texts and Popular Culture, ed. John Wallis and Kenneth G.C. Newport (London: Equinox, 2006). 22-42
‘Sozdanie evreiskogo repa: parodija, pastish, sinkretizm’ ['Creating Jewish Rap: Parody, Pastiche and Syncretism’] in A. Smirnitskaya (ed) Muzyika Idishkaita [Music of Yiddishkite]. Vol. 4.Moscow: MAKS Press, 2008, pp 128-150.
‘Exploring Scenes’ in Talkie Walkie: [jongerensubculture] 4 believers/non-believers, Acco, 2007 pp94-105.
[with Steven M. Cohen] ‘Beyond Belonging: Jewish Identities of Moderately Engaged British Jews in the UK’ in S. Cohen and B. Susser (eds) Ambivalent Jew: Charles Leibman in Memorial, Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 2007, pp67-88
‘‘Roots’?: The Relationship Between the Global and the Local Within the Global Extreme Metal Scene’, in A. Bennett, B. Shank and J. Toynbee (eds) The Popular Music Studies Reader, Routledge, 2005 pp128-136 [edited reprint of a previous article]
'Unspectacular Subculture?: Transgression and Mundanity in the Global Extreme Metal Scene', in A. Bennett and K. Kahn-Harris (eds) After Subculture: Critical Studies in Subcultural Theory and Research , Palgrave, 2004 pp 107-118
‘Death Metal and the Limits of Musical Expression’ in Cloonan, M and Garofalo, R (ed), Policing Pop , Temple University Press, 2003 pp 81-99
*[As Keith Harris] ‘An Orphaned Land?: Israel and the Global Extreme Metal Scene’ in Harris, K (ed), New Voices in Jewish Thought: Volume 2, Limmud Publications, London, 1999, pp1-21
*[As Keith Harris] ‘Exploring Jewish Space: A Critique of Limmud’ in Rabinowitz R (ed), New Voices in Jewish Thought, Limmud Publications, London, 1998, pp 39-54
*[As Keith Harris] ‘Discussion’ (with Robert Rabinowitz) in Goldberg J and Kosmin B, The Social Attitudes of Unmarried Young Jews in Contemporary Britain, Institute for Jewish Policy Research, London, 1997
Edited collections:
(with Andrew Bennett) After Subculture: Critical Studies in Subcultural Theory and Research, Palgrave, 2004
New Voices in Jewish Thought: Volume 2 , Limmud Publications, London, 1999
Monographs:
Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge, Berg Publishers, Oxford, 2006
Music is My Life?: Discourse Analysis and the Interview Talk of Members of a Music-Based Subculture , Goldsmiths Sociology Paper, Goldsmiths College, 1997
Research Reports:
‘Communities in Conversation: Jewish Involvement in Inter Faith Activities in the UK’, Published by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, May 2009. [PDF can be viewed here]
'An Experiment in Dialogue', Published by New Jewish Thought, December 2008.
‘Findings of a Mapping Study of Efforts to Combat Anti-Semitism, Racism and Xenophobia at the Local, Communal and Grassroots Levels in Europe’, Commissioned by the Rothschild Foundation, 2007. Summary available here.
*(co-supervised with Dilwar Hussain) ’A Mapping Report of Positive Contact Between British Muslims and British Jews’, Commissioned by Alif-Aleph UK, 2005 [Can be viewed here]
(With Steven M. Cohen) Beyond Belonging: The Jewish Identities of Moderately Engaged British Jews, London: UJIA / Profile Books, 2004 [Can be viewed here]
‘Diaspora Jewish Education in Australia During a Time of Crisis’, commissioned by the Education department of the Jewish Agency, December 2002
*Reports on surveys of the audiences of Jewish Book Week and of the Jewish Film Festival, commissioned by Jewish Continuity, 1996
Other articles:
‘The Politics of Brisket: Jews and The Wire,’ Darkmatter, no. 4 29 May 29 2009
‘Jews talking about talking about Israel’ in Haaretz Online 22 May 2009
‘Debating the Debate’ in The Jewish Quarterly, Spring 2009, 50-54
'Heavy Shtetl' in Guardian Comment Is Free , 6 April 2009.
(with David Hayes) 'The Politics of ME, ME, ME' in Open Democracy 9 Jan 2009
'British Jews and Israel: A New Relationship?' in Guardian Comment is Free 13 Jan 2009
'In Praise of Part-Time Musicians' in Guardian Comment is Free 19 December 2008
‘The Jewish Community in Britain: It Still Doesn’t Feel Right’ in Manna issue 101 Autumn 2008
‘Is Britain Good for the Jews’ in The Jerusalem Post (paper and online editions) June 18 2008
‘Impaired (Euro)Vision’ in Guardian Comment Is Free 19 May 2008
‘It’s Not Just for ME That I Ask’ in Times Higher Education 15 May 2008
‘What It Really Means To Be Healthy’ in The Guardian G2 Section 6 May 2008
‘A Real Peace Movement?’ In Guardian Comment Is Free 6 March 2008
‘TV Drama as Sociology: In Praise of The Wire’ in Street Signs, Spring 2008, 41-2
‘How to talk about things we know nothing about’ in Open Democracy 22 February 2008
' How to talk about things we know nothing about' in Open Democracy February 22 2008
'Intra-Faith to Faith' in Guardian Comment is Free , January 15 2008
'People, you really ought to talk to each other' in The Jewish Chronicle, 11 January 2008, p31
‘How To Be Left’ in Guardian Comment is Free, November 2007
‘The Politics of Assimilation’ in Guardian Comment is Free, November 2007
‘Dialogue, Debate and Political Commitment’ in Liberal Conspiracy, November 2007
'Dwellers and Seekers' in The Jewish Quarterly, Autumn 2007, 60-1
‘The Seductions of Denial’ in Open Democracy, September 2007
‘A Response to Ruth Rosenfelder’ [part of the collection ‘The Problem With Dialogue’] in New Jewish Thought, September 2007
‘Boycotts and Ethics’ on the Jeneration website August 23 2007
‘The Hermeneutics of Anti-Anti-Semitism’ in New Jewish Thought , 2006
‘Preparing for the Pains of Peace’ in Sh’ma 36, November 2005
*‘The Aesthetics of Hate Music’ essay commissioned for the ‘Anti-semitism and xenophobia today’ website: http://www.axt.org.uk/hatemusic/hatemusic.htm , 2004
‘Jews and Black Music: A Difficult Relationship’ in Jewish Renaissance, 6/3, 29-30, 2004
‘Ein Verwaistes Land? Israel und die Extreme Metal-Szene’ in Testcard 6, 2001
Book reviews:
‘Jews and Sex’ edited by Nathan Abrams in The Jewish Quarterly, Spring 2009, 80-1
‘A Time to Speak Out: Independent Jewish Voices on Israel, Zionism and Jewish Identity’ edited by Anne Karpf et al in Zeek, November 24 2008
‘Klezmer America: Jewishness, Ethnicity, Modernity’ by Jonathan Freedman in Jewish Quarterly 210, Summer 2008
‘True Norwegian Black Metal’ by Peter Beste in New Humanist 123/4 July/August 2008
Since 2007: Regular reviewer for Times Higher Education.
‘Jews and Europe in the Twenty-First Century: Thinking Jewish’ by Nick Lambert in The Jewish Chronicle 7 December 2007 p46
‘A Living Lens: Photographs of Jewish Life from the Pages of the Forward’ in New Humanist 122/5, Sept/Oct 2007
‘Music and Youth Culture’ by Dan Laughey, in Sociology 41/2, 2007
Essay review of ‘The Art of Listening’ by Les Back in New Jewish Thought August 2007
“Religion and Popular Culture: A Hyper-Real Testament” by Adam Possamai, in Journal of Contemporary Religion 21/1, 2006
* ‘False Prophet: Field Notes from the Punk Underground’ by Steven Taylor, in www.iaspm.net, 2004
‘Popular Music and National Culture in Israel’ by Motti Regev and Edwin Seroussi in the Jewish Chronicle, 4 June 2004
*Essay Review of ‘Rock and Roll Jews’ by Michael Billig, in Manna 69, Autumn 2000
‘Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground’ by Michael Moynihan and Didrik Søderlind, in Popular Music 18/1, January 1999
Conference and seminar papers (selected):
‘How Diverse Should Metal Be? The Case of Jewish Metal’ at ‘Heavy Fundamentalisms: Music, Metal and Politics’, Salzburg, 3-5 November 2008
‘Do We Need Jewish Metal? On Popular Music, Diversity and Inclusion’
at ‘Popular Music Studies: Problems, Disputes, Questions’, University of Glasgow,
12-14 September 2008.
‘From Security to Insecurity: British Jewish Communal Leadership in the Context of Multiculturalism’ at ‘Encounters and Intersections: Religion, Diaspora and Ethnicities Conference’, St Catherine’s College Oxford, 9th-11th July 2008
‘The Elephant in the Room: What do British Jews not talk about?’ and ‘Developing Dialogue Within The UK Jewish Community’ at Limmud, December 2007
'Contemporary Jewish Music in the UK and America: Forces of Unification and Fragmentation'. Presented at 'Social Connections: Identities, Technologies, Relationships', British Sociological Association Annual Conference, April 2007
Member of panel on religion and popular music at ‘Theology, Religion and Popular Culture’ conference at Regent’s Park, College, Oxford, April 2006.
'Transgression and Satanism in Extreme Metal’. Presented at ‘The Lure of the Dark Side: Satan and Western Demonology in Popular Culture’ St Deiniol’s Library, March 2006
‘Jews and Muslims: A Comparative Sociology’. Presented at Royal Holloway College Forum for the Comparative Study of Muslims and Jews, October 2005
'Understanding Jewish Rap: Pastiche and Syncretism'. Presented at ‘The Local, the Regional and the Global in the Emergence of Popular Music Cultures’, Copenhagen University, October 2005 and at a seminar at Gothenburg University, March 2005.
Respondent on panel ‘Defining Questions, Issues and Methods for the Study of Religion and Popular Music’ at ‘Studying Religion and Popular Music’, University of Birmingham, May 2005
‘Local Music Scenes on a Global Arena: A Comparison of UK, Swedish, Israeli and US Extreme Metal’. Seminar at The Advanced Cultural Institute of Sweden, Norrköping, March 2005
'The Status of the Musical Text in Religious Popular Music: Some Conceptual Difficulties'. Presented at the April 2003 conference of the BSA Sociology of Religion Study Group, Oxford.
Welcoming address to Day Three ‘ The Invisible Mainstream’ of the biennial conference of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music, Turku University, Finland, July 2001
‘Humour and Extreme Metal’. Presented at BSA Youth Study Group seminar, Northampton, January 2001 and at Turku University, Finland, October 2000
‘An Orphaned Land?: Israel and the Extreme Metal Scene’. Presented at Crossroads in Cultural Studies, Birmingham University, June 2000 and at The Popular Musician: Performance, Poetics, Power, biennial conference of the UK branch of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music, University of Surrey, July 2000.
‘’Darkthrone is absolutely not a political band’: Difference and Reflexivity in the Global Extreme Metal Scene’. Presented at Changing Sounds: New Directions and Configurations in Popular Music, biennial conference of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music, Sydney University of Technology, 1999 and at Researching Culture, University of North London, 1999
‘Representations and Experiences of the Body in Death Metal Music and the Challenge of Formulating a Critical Response’. Presented at the British Sociological Association conference, Edinburgh University, 1998 and at seminars at the Universities of Stockholm, Gothenburg and Liverpool, 1998.
‘Roots?: The Relationship Between the Global and the Local Within the Extreme Metal Scene’. Presented at Popular Music: Intercultural Interpretations, biennial conference of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music, University of Kanazawa, Japan, 1997 and at Music Studies and Cultural Difference, Open University, 1997.
‘Constructing Death: Discourse Analysis and the Interview Talk of Four Death Metal Fans’. Presented at Vox Pop, annual conference of the Oral History Society, London, 1997.
Other presentations and seminars (selected):
‘Jewish Texts of Wilful Ignorance and Denial’. Presented at Jewdas ‘Radical Torah’ evening, London, March 2007
Chair of ‘Postcards from the Unholy Land’ session at London Jewish Book Week, March 2007
‘What Jews Can Learn From Satanism'. Presented at Jewdas ‘Punk Purim’ event, March 2006
Seminar on British Jewish Identity, Paideia, Sweden, March 2005.
‘Jews and Black Culture: From Al (Jolson) to Ali (G)’. Lecture given at the London Jewish Cultural Center, December 2004 and at Paideia, Sweden, March 2005.
‘Alternative Models of Community’. Presented at Limmud Leadership Extensive – Seeds of Change, Nottingham 2001
‘‘Kyle’s Mom is a Stupid *$!%*: What ‘South Park’ Tells Us About Being Jewish’. Presented at Limmud, Nottingham, 2000.
‘Identity’. Panel session in conversation with Dr Tova Habertal at Get A Life: Conference on Jewish Teenagers, 1999.
‘ From Generation to Generation - Jewish Transmission’. Panel session with Dr Stephen Miller at Jewish Values and the Just Society, London, 1999.
‘Jewish Identity and Jewish Youth: Learning from Black and Asian Subcultures’. Presented at the Festival of Reform Judaism, London, 1999.
‘Israeli Youth Face the Future’. Presented at Limmud, Nottingham, 1998.
‘Exploring Jewish Space: A Critique of Limmud’. Presented at Limmud, Manchester, 1997.
‘Promoting Jewish Identity Among Young Adults: Learning From British Subcultures’. Presented at Limmud, Worcester, 1996.