About

I work as a sociologist, researcher, writer and music critic. I am an Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Religion and Contemporary Society at Birkbeck College, an associate lecturer for the Open University and the convenor of New Jewish Thought.

I’ve written on a variety of topics, including: Judaism; music scenes; heavy metal; transgression; Israel; communities; dialogue; religion; ethnicity; political discourse; denial.

I am available for freelance writing assignments and for research [...]

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Books

Turbulent Times: The British Jewish Community Today

Co-authored with Ben Gidley

Continuum, July 2010

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The first book-length study of contemporary British Jewry , Turbulent Times: The British Jewish Community Today examines the changing nature of the British Jewish community and its leadership since 1990.

Keith Kahn-Harris and Ben Gidley contend that there has been a shift within Jewish communal discourse from a strategy of security, which emphasized Anglo-Jewry’s secure British belonging and citizenship, to a strategy of insecurity, which emphasizes the dangers and threats Jews face individually and communally. This shift is part of a process of renewal in the community that has led to something of a ‘Jewish renaissance’ in Britain.

Addressing key questions on the transitions in the history of Anglo-Jewish community and leadership, and tackling the concept of the ‘new antisemitism’, this important and timely study addresses the question: how has UK Jewry adapted from a shift from monoculturalism to multiculturalism?

Reviews, interviews and articles on ‘Turbulent Times’

[NB: if you know of any more then please get in touch]

Interview with the authors in the Jewish Chronicle, July 28 2010

Short article in British Religion in Numbers, July 2010

Article promoting the book by Keith Kahn-Harris in Ekklesia, July 2010

Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge

Berg Publishers, December 2006

Extreme Metal Cover

Extreme metal–one step beyond heavy metal–can appear bizarre or terrifying to the uninitiated. Extreme metal musicians have developed an often impenetrable sound that teeters on the edge of screaming, incomprehensible noise. Extreme metal circulates on the edge of mainstream culture within the confines of an obscure ’scene’, in which members explore dangerous themes such as death, war and the occult, sometimes embracing violence, neo-fascism and Satanism.

In the first book-length study of extreme metal, Keith Kahn-Harris draws on first-hand research to explore the global extreme metal scene. He shows how the scene is a space in which members creatively explore destructive themes, but also a space in which members experience the everyday pleasures of community and friendship.

Including interviews with band members and fans, from countries ranging from the UK and US to Israel and Sweden, Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge demonstrates the power and subtlety of an often surprising and misunderstood musical form.

Reviews of ‘Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge’

[NB: if you know of any more then please get in touch]

Circle of Destruction, February 2009

Journal of Popular Music Studies, Volume 20, Issue 2, Pages 194–207

Popular Music,Volume 27, Issue 2, May 2008, Pages 338-9

Nordicum- Mediterraneum, Vol 3, No 1, March 2008

Xtrememusic.org 2008

Zombiegirlsonline 2008

Metal Injection 11th July 2007

Decibel Magazine (US) July 2007

Times Higher Education Supplement March 16th 2007

Copyright Volume! 5/2 2006 [in French]

After Subculture: Critical Studies in Contemporary Youth Culture

Edited by Andy Bennett and Keith Kahn-Harris
Palgrave Macmillan, May 2004
After Subculture cover
The concept of ’subculture’ has long been of significant importance in research on youth, style, deviance and popular culture. Although in more recent years subculture has been the subject of sustained critique, it still provides a valuable point of reference for study and research. This text offers students an up-to-date and wide-ranging account of new developments in youth culture research that reject, refine or reinvent the concept of subculture. Bringing together key theoretical statements with illuminating analyzes of particular aspects of youth culture – popular music, clubbing, body modification, the internet, etc. – this is an ideal introduction to a diverse and wide-ranging field.

New Voices in Jewish Thought: Volume 2

Edited by Keith Harris (my maiden name!)
Limmud Publications, 1999
new voices in jewish thought
The five essays in this book represent highly creative attempts to deal with the problematics of contemporary diaspora Jewish identity, including the need to deepen an understanding of new trends in Israeli society. – Dr Jonathan Webber