The Softness of Metal
Psyche
Watching a seated Ozzy play his final gig, my ankle broken, I’m in tears – this couldn’t be more metal
Publication Date: September 21, 2026
Theme: Metal Music and Culture, Personal/Memoire
Category: Journalism and essays
Writings
Here you can find a record of almost all my publications – from scholarly journal articles to newspaper articles – listed with the most recent first. In most cases there is either a downloadable pdf or a link to the publication itself. You can search by publication type (academic, non-academic, book reviews etc), by theme and by keyword. Enjoy!
How Israel-Palestine infiltrates everything
Prospect
Or maybe not quite everything. As the case of Ozzy Osbourne shows, metal is proving peculiarly resistant to the battle over the war
Publication Date: June 23, 2026
Theme: Israel/Palestine, Metal Music and Culture, Politics
Category: Journalism and essays
Interview with The Mirror: ‘Ozzy Osbourne was insatiable but his life is a valuable lesson to us all’
The Mirror
In a fascinating new book on the late Black Sabbath frontman, author Keith Khan-Harris opens up on a life led at 100 miles an hour - and the legacy Ozzy left behind
Publication Date: May 29, 2026
Theme: Metal Music and Culture
Category: Interviews
Death Metal
Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Volume 13
Sarah Chaker main author
Publication Date: May 28, 2026
Theme: Metal Music and Culture
Category: Book chapters
Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Volume 13
Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Volume 13
With Imke von Helden
Publication Date: May 28, 2026
Theme: Metal Music and Culture
Category: Book chapters
Visible Jews, Invisible Jews
K
Golders Green, the pervasive antisemitism, and what our experience is worth
Publication Date: May 21, 2026
Theme: Jews, Judaism and Jewishness
Category: Journalism and essays
What if there are no ‘unintended consequences’?
Prospect
The Iran war is also the death of sociology.
Publication Date: March 11, 2026
Theme: Israel/Palestine
Category: Journalism and essays
Oy to the world! The reinvention of Chanukah
Jewish News
Its transformation from an insular ‘us and them’ holy day to a universalist celebration is something of a miracle
Publication Date: December 8, 2025
Theme: Jews, Judaism and Jewishness
Category: Journalism and essays
All this and Ian McShane too: Grace Jones’ Slave To The Rhythm at 40
The Quietus
Keith Kahn-Harris celebrates a sometimes glorious, occasionally infuriating, always baffling album that remains entirely of its time
Publication Date: October 28, 2025
Theme: Music
Category: Journalism and essays, Music reviews
Black Sabbath with attitude
The New World
Carlos Acosta’s ballet celebrates a band that is woven into Birmingham’s cultural soul
Publication Date: October 1, 2025
Theme: Metal Music and Culture
Category: Journalism and essays, Music reviews
Confronting & Celebrating the Limits of the Body: Black Sabbath Live at Villa Park
The Quietus
Publication Date: July 9, 2025
Theme: Metal Music and Culture
Category: Journalism and essays, Music reviews
Why should Jews serve any purpose?
K. Jews, Europe and the XX1st Century
Keith Kahn-Harris, author of Everyday Jews: Why the Jewish people are not who you think they are, questions, with a hint of provocation, this strange and alienating Jewish tendency to want to make themselves indispensable to the world. What if the best response to antisemitism was ultimately to claim the right to frivolity, to allow oneself a perfectly superfluous existence?
[French and Italian translations also available]
[French and Italian translat
Publication Date: July 3, 2025
Theme: Jews, Judaism and Jewishness
Category: Journalism and essays
Are Sleep Token Really ‘Metal’?
ArtReview
And given how innovation works in culture today, does it even matter if they are?
Publication Date: June 30, 2025
Theme: Metal Music and Culture
Category: Journalism and essays
What it means to “speak out” about atrocities
Prospect
Posting Pastor Niemöller’s “First they came for…” on Facebook doesn’t make you Pastor Niemöller
Publication Date: June 23, 2025
Theme: Israel/Palestine, Politics
Category: Journalism and essays
Chopping Onions on My Heart by Samantha Ellis review – can you save a culture?
The Guardian
A woman tries to cling on to her parent’s Judeo-Arabic language – and the food, feeling and history that goes with it
Publication Date: April 19, 2025
Theme: Jews, Judaism and Jewishness
Category: Book reviews
Unconscious misrepresentation: why are we downplaying everyday Jewish life?
Jewish News
'Can we ever be ordinary and insignificant?' asks sociologist Keith Kahn-Harris
Publication Date: March 23, 2025
Theme: Jews, Judaism and Jewishness
Category: Journalism and essays
Why This Sociologist Thinks Jews Should Stop Seeking Exceptionalism and Start Being Boring
Haaretz (English edition)
English writer and sociologist Keith Kahn-Harris is concerned that Jews' prominence in the world is turning them into a target - but not in the way you think. In his new book, 'Everyday Jews,' he battles for the right of his people to experience ordinary life
Publication Date: March 22, 2025
Theme: Jews, Judaism and Jewishness
Category: Interviews
The Humble Beauty of Britain’s Synagogues
Unseen Histories
Keith Khan-Harris finds meaning in the lives of everyday Jews
Publication Date: March 17, 2025
Theme: Jews, Judaism and Jewishness
Category: Journalism and essays