Keith Kahn-Harris

Keith Kahn-Harris is a writer, sociologist, lecturer, salonist, and music critic. He is an honorary research fellow and associate lecturer at Birkbeck College and an associate fellow of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research and a lecturer at Leo Baeck College. He is a regular reviewer for a number of scholarly journals, including Sociology, Sociological Research Online, Journal of Contemporary Religion, European Journal of Cultural Studies, and Popular Music History.

The topics Kahn-Harris has published academic and non-academic articles on include Judaism, music scenes, heavy metal music, transgression, Israel, communities, dialogue, religion, ethnicity, political discourse, and denial.

Books

• Uncivil War: The Israel Conflict in the Jewish Community, David Paul Books, 2014
• All that Matters: Judaism, Hodder Education, 2012
• Despatches from the Invisible Revolution (edited with Dougald Hine), New Public Thinking 2012
• Turbulent Times: The British Jewish Community Today (co-written with Ben Gidley), Continuum 2010
• Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge Berg 2007
• After subculture: Critical studies in contemporary youth culture
• Denial: The Unspeakable Truth (forthcoming, November 2018 from Notting Hill Editions)

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

Other articles in scholarly journals

• "The Politics of Brisket: Jews and The Wire", Darkmatter, no. 4 29 29 May 2009
• "'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
• Tragic Encounters and Ordinary Ethics: Palestine-Istael in British Universities (Review), Fathom, Winter 2016

Chapters in scholarly books

• "'You Are From Israel and that is Enough to Hate you Forever: Racism, Globalization and Play Within the Global Extreme Metal Scene" in Metal Rules the Globe: Heavy Metal Music around the World, eds Jeremy Wallach, Harris M. Berger, Paul D. Greene (Duke University Press 2012)[1]
• (With Ben Gidley) "From Security to Insecurity: British Jewish Communal Leadership in the Context of Multiculturalism" in Dynamic Belonging: Contemporary Jewish Collective Identities, ed Harvey E. Goldberg, Steven M. Cohen, and Ezra Kopelowitz (Berghahn Books 2011)

• 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).
• 2007-08: Research Associate at the Centre for Urban and Community Research, Goldsmiths College, 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).
• 2005: Postdoctoral Fellow at the Advanced Cultural Studies Institute of Sweden, Campus Norrköping of Linköping University.
• 2001-02: "Jerusalem Fellow" at the Mandel School for Advanced Educational Leadership in Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Fellows programme is a prestigious, international, cross-communal career development programme for Jewish educators from Diaspora communities.

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