Current work

I work as a writer, sociologist, lecturer, salonist and music critic.

I am an honorary research fellow and associate lecturer at Birkbeck College and an associate lecturer for the Open University.

I am currently working on three book projects:

• An introductory guide to Judaism to be published in Hodder and Stoughton's forthcoming 'All That Matters' series.
• A book on the divisions in the Jewish community over Israel and how to ameliorate them, to be published by David Paul Press.
• A popular non-fiction travel book called The Best Water Skier In Luxembourg: Tales of Big Fishes in Small Ponds, crowd-funded through the Unbound publishing project.

I have published two books:

• (With Ben Gidley) Turbulent Times: The British Jewish Community Today
• Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge

I've also co-edited a number of other books.

I’ve published academic and non-academic articles on a variety of topics, including: Judaism; music scenes; heavy metal; transgression; Israel; communities; dialogue; religion; ethnicity; political discourse; denial. View a list of my publications here.

I work as a freelance research consultant for a number of Jewish communal organisations.

I convene dinners and salons at my home with a variety of guests, to discuss a variety of topics.

I am available for freelance writing assignments and for research consultancy.

Email me via the contact page or drop me a line on twitter, where I'm @keithkahnharris.

Literary agent: Jamie Coleman at Toby Eady Associates

 

Previous positions

2008- 9: Research Associate at the Centre for Urban and Community Research, Goldsmiths College, working on project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council ‘Contemporary Anglo-Jewry and Leadership: Coping with Multiculturalism’ (with Ben Gidley).

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2007-8 : Research Associate at the Centre for Urban and Community Research, Goldsmiths College, working on two projects funded by the Rothschild Foundation: ‘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.

1997-2005: Music critic for Terrorizer magazine.

2003 : Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Cultural History, Turku University, Finland.  I taught a course entitled ‘Youth, Transgression and Popular Music’ during autumn term 2003-4.‏

2002 : Visiting Fellow at the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilization, Monash University, Melbourne.  Whilst at the centre I was commissioned to conduct two pieces of research: 1) am interview-based study of Australia Jewish youth movements and their relationship to Israel during the current crisis.  2) an interview-based study of the organizers of summer camps run by Australian Jewish days schools.

2001-2 : ‘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.

1998-9 : Visiting Tutor in the Department of Sociology, Goldsmiths College. I led a first year seminar group on the course ‘Researching Society and Culture’.

1996 : Visiting Tutor in the Department of Media and Communications, Goldsmiths College.  I led two third year seminar groups on the course ‘Music and the Masses’.

1995-8 : Research Officer for Jewish Continuity / UJIA.

1994-5 : Research Assistant for SCPR (Social and Community Planning Research now called National Centre for Social Research).

1989-93 : Youth leader for Unity, a group that integrated young people with special needs and disabilities into play schemes.

Other previous activities and positions:

2009: External Examiner of the PhD thesis of Meir Persoff, Middlesex University

2008: External Examiner of the PhD thesis of Rachel Goldstein, Greenwich University.

2007 : External Examiner of Honours dissertation, Department of Communications, Monash University Malaysia

2004-7 : Editorial Board Member for the journal Sociological Research Online

2004 : External Examiner for the PhD thesis ‏of Thomas Harrison, Salford University.

1999-01 : Treasurer/Membership Secretary of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM).

1999 : Editor, Publisher and Organiser of ‘New Voices in Jewish Thought’ project:  This involved editing, publishing, publicising and circulating the collection ‘New Voices in Jewish Thought: Volume Two’ and organising the monthly ‘New Voices’ seminar group for Jewish postgraduate students.

1997-99 : Secretary of the UK branch of IASPM.  Duties included organising the 1998 IASPM UK conference, collecting subscriptions and maintaining membership records.

In addition to the above I am 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.

Education

1991-94 : Robinson College, Cambridge
BA in Social and Political Sciences (2:1)

1995-01 : Goldsmiths College, London:

1996 : MA in Sociology with special reference to qualitative research (Distinction)
Dissertation Title:  ‘Constructing Death: A Discourse Analysis of the Interview Talk of Four Death Metal Fans’

1999 : MPhil in Sociology (p/t)

2001 : PhD in Sociology (f/t)
Thesis title: ‘Transgression and Mundanity: The Global Extreme Metal Music Scene.’  My thesis was based on interviews carried out with ‘Extreme Metal’ musicians and fans in Israel, Sweden and the UK.