Keith Kahn-Harris

Keith Kahn-Harris is a sociologist and music critic. He is an honorary research fellow and senior lecturer at Birkbeck College,^[1] an associate fellow of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research,^[2] and a lecturer at Leo Baeck College.

Kahn-Harris was educated at Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, Elstree, at the same time as comedians Sacha Baron Cohen and Matt Lucas, and starred in a student review with Robert Webb whilst a student studying social and political science at Robinson College, Cambridge.^[3] He went on to graduate with MA and PhD degrees from Goldsmiths, University of London, and has since published academic and non-academic articles on Judaism, music scenes, heavy metal music, transgression, Israel, communities, dialogue, religion, ethnicity, political discourse, and denial.^[3]

Academic positions

• 2008–09: Research Associate at the Centre for Urban and Community Research, Goldsmiths, University of London, working on project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council "Contemporary Anglo-Jewry and Leadership: Coping with Multiculturalism" (with Ben Gidley).^[4]
• 2007–08: Research Associate at the Centre for Urban and Community Research, Goldsmiths, working on two projects funded by the Rothschild Foundation Europe: "A Mapping Study of Efforts to Combat Antisemitism, Racism and Xenophobia at the Local, Communal and Grassroots Levels in Europe" (with Roger Hewitt) and "From Security to Insecurity?: Jewish Communal Leadership in Changing Times" (with Ben Gidley).^[4]
• 2005: Postdoctoral Fellow at the Advanced Cultural Studies Institute of Sweden, Campus Norrköping of Linköping University.^[5]
• 2001–02: "Jerusalem Fellow" at the Mandel School for Advanced Educational Leadership in Jerusalem.^{[citation needed]}

Select bibliography

Books written

• The Babel Message: A Love Letter to Language Icon Books, 2021
• Strange Hate: Anti-semitism, racism, and the Limits of Diversity Repeater books, 2019
  • Review, by Howard Cooper The Jewish Chronicle, 18 June 2020
• Denial: The Unspeakable Truth, Notting Hill Editions, 2018^[6]
• Uncivil War: The Israel Conflict in the Jewish Community, David Paul Books, 2014^[7]
  • Review by C Schindler, Jewish Journal of Sociology 56 (2014) 127–128.
• All that Matters: Judaism, Hodder Education, 2012^[8]
• (co-written with Ben Gidley), Turbulent Times: The British Jewish Community Today Continuum 2010^[9]
• Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge Berg 2007^[10]
  • Review: ^[11]

Books edited

• (co-edited with Dougald Hine) Despatches from the Invisible Revolution New Public Thinking 2012^[12]
• (co-edited with Andy Bennett) After subculture: Critical studies in contemporary youth culture Basingstoke Palgrave 2004^[13]

Refereed articles in scholarly journals

• "Religious Popular Music: Between the Instrumental, Transcendent and Transgressive" in Temenos: Nordic Journal of Comparative Religion, 48/1, 87–106 2012
• (With Ben Gidley) "Contemporary Anglo-Jewish and Community Leadership: Coping with Multiculturalism", British Journal of Sociology 63/1 2012
• "Creating Jewish Rap: From Parody to Syncretism" in transversal – Zeitschrift für Jüdische Studien 1 2009 21–38
• "The 'Failure' of Youth Culture: Music, Politics and Reflexivity in the Black Metal Scene" in European Journal of Cultural Studies, 7/1 2004, pp 95–111
• "'Roots'?: The Relationship Between the Global and the Local Within the Global Extreme Metal Scene" in Popular Music 19/1, 2000, pp 13–30

Journal special issues

• (Co-edited with Titus Hjelm and Mark LeVine) "Heavy Metal: Controversies and Countercultures" Popular Music History 6: 1/2, April/August 2012
• (Co-edited with Karl Spracklen and Andy R. Brown) "Metal Studies: Cultural Research in the Heavy Metal Scene" Journal for Cultural Research 15: 3, July 2011

Personal life

He is married to Rabbi Deborah Kahn-Harris, with whom he has two children.^[14]