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Punk Scholars Podcast

Punk Scholars Podcast

Written by: Punk Scholars Team
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Punk scholars. Scholarship about punk. Contested though it may be, punk studies is a growing field in academia with publication outlets, conferences, and even entire organizations, such as the Punk Scholars Network (PSN) with its international branches, dedicated to such pursuits. Join co-hosts, co-producers, and resident punk scholars Jessica Schwartz (UCLA, PSN US, the Punkast series) and Paul Hollins (Bolton, PSN UK) as they explore the many manifestations of punk in the academy and learn how such scholarship is working to change the facade of the ivory tower by resisting its elitist history and challenging its neoliberal future.

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Punk Scholars Podcast Music Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Martin James

    Martin James
    Jan 16 2026

    Happy 2026, punk scholars and other interested parties!


    Your Punk Scholars Podcast co-hosts, Jessica Schwartz and Paul Hollins, are back in action with a recursively engaging interview of Prof. Martin James. Let us let you in on a couple of fun facts about our guest...."Martin has been punched by Goldie, pissed on by Iggy Pop and kidnapped by an unknown DJ in Italy. He also once swam across crocodile-infested waters in Indonesia, got stoned senseless with Cypress Hill in Amsterdam, and played Resident Evil with Ice T in Hollywood. Furthermore, he’s travelled the world with The Prodigy, written two books about them, provided record label biogs for each of their last 5 albums, and supplied sleeve notes to their greatest hits collection, Their Law. As a journalist, his weirdest interview was when he brought Afrika Bambaataa together with the hip hop originator’s hero Gary Numan… they were both quite bemused." ...and...."Legendary DJ Annie Nightingale MBE once described Martin as: “… one of the most conscientious, outspoken and honest writers working in music today — and he’s not afraid to cry!”


    Guest Bio.

    Prof. Martin James is an independent scholar who was, until three years ago, Professor of Creative and Cultural Industries at Solent University in Southampton, UK. His areas of specialist interest include music journalism and the UK & US music press, music cities and late-twentieth-century alternative music; specifically, punk, post-punk, synth pop and electronic music. Martin’s academic and trade publications have focused on hidden histories in the mediated narratives of popular music. He is the author of several critically acclaimed books about music, including State of Bass: Jungle – the story so far (Velocity Press, 1997, 2020) and French Connections: from discotheque to discovery (Velocity Press, 2004, 2022). He is co-editor of the forthcoming Intellect Handbook of Global Music Industries (Intellect), Media Narratives in Popular Music (Bloomsbury Academic, 2022), and co-author of Understanding the Music Industries (Sage, 2012). Prior to becoming an academic in 2004, Martin worked in the UK national music press as a writer and editor. He was on the editorial staff of Melody Maker, Muzik, Vox and various others. Furthermore, he contributed to The Guardian, The Independent, and various lifestyle magazines. He continues to write for special music magazines and interview artists turned author at music literature events.


    This episode features the music: Nostalgia Deathstar "ZU (Night of the Claustrozombies)" featuring Prof Tara Brabazon and Prof Steve Redhead. 2025. All rights reserved.


    Links

    Email: martinjames2562@gmail.com


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    We’d love to hear from you and are soliciting episode ideas and guests. Contact us at: punkscholarspodcast@gmail.com

    The PSP theme music is excerpted from “Crows” by Watch You Drown. All rights reserved.


    Season 2, Episode 8, was recorded on January 16, 2025, on Zoom with participants in the UK and the US. Paul Hollins and Jessica Schwartz co-hosted and co-produced this episode and edited the transcript, which is available here.

    Jessica Schwartz also edited the audio.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    1 hr and 6 mins
  • Live at Leeds: 12th Annual Punk Scholars Network Conference

    Live at Leeds: 12th Annual Punk Scholars Network Conference
    Dec 15 2025
    Here we go again…the second Punk Scholars Podcast live taping…this time, we’re LIVE AT LEEDS from the 12th Annual Punk Scholars Network Conference 2025 at the University of Leeds. In a roundtable format, punk scholars from your familiar PSP co-hosting crew– Jessica Schwartz, Paul Hollins, Mike Dines, and Russ Bestley–spotlight conference organizer, Stan Erraught, and speak on the importance of the PSP in the context of the annual PSN conference gathering. Note: For context, given the occasional reference to Caroline, this taping was preceded by a six-minute clip of Caroline Collett's book reading from the previous episode of the Punk Scholars Podcast (PSP S2 E6). We encourage you to listen to that episode (and all others) as well. Guest Bio and Conference AbstractStan Erraught is a lecturer in Music Business and Popular Music in the School of Music at the University of Leeds. He holds a PhD in Philosophy from University College, Dublin. He has published a monograph on Music, Value, and Utopia: Nostalgia for an Age Yet to Come (Rowman and Littlefield 2018) and his article, ‘The Country and Irish Problem’ was published in Popular Music in 2021. Rebel Notes: Popular Music and Conflict will be published in early 2025 by Beyond the Pale. He is currently writing a book on Popular Music, Modernity and Anxiety: Ireland 1950-1990.PUNK: PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE.The Punk Scholars Network 12th Annual Conference and Postgraduate Symposium was hosted by the School of Music at the University of Leeds on the 12th & 13th December 2025. The theme of the conference was Punk: Past, Present, Future.As punk approaches its half century - if we take the year of the first Ramones album and the first Sex Pistols single as year zero - this year's Punk Scholars Network conference explored how a cultural form that rejoiced in the rejection of the past, and a joyful skepticism towards any kind of future, can deal with its own history, its fragility in the face of age, and the sustainability of the form itself as it passes from first person memory into history. Papers were presented on topics that examined the past in light of these concerns, as well as those that interrogated the present and inquired what 'punk' is now and the future of a form that remains resilient and innovative.Guest and Conference LinksStan Erraught | School of Music | University of LeedsStanley Erraught Discography: Vinyl, CDs, & More | DiscogsOn Music, Value and Utopia: Nostalgia for an Age Yet to Come?Leeds Conference 2025 — Punk Scholars Network-We’d love to hear from you and are soliciting episode ideas and guests. Contact us at: punkscholarspodcast@gmail.comThe PSP theme music is excerpted from “Crows” by Watch You Drown. All rights reserved. Season 2, Episode 7, was recorded on December 11, 2025, on Zoom with roundtable participants in Leeds, UK, and in the US. Jessica Schwartz, Paul Hollins, Mike Dines, and Russ Bestley co-hosted and co-produced this episode. Paul Hollins and Jessica Schwartz edited the transcript, which is available here.Jessica Schwartz edited the audio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    44 mins
  • Caroline Collett

    Caroline Collett
    Dec 12 2025

    This week, we have something quite different for you. We have the absolute pleasure of introducing you to Caroline Collet. Caroline would not describe herself as a ‘Punk Scholar’, though she did work with me and Martin James on the ‘Four Old Lags’ paper presented at the PSN conference in Buckingham a couple of years ago. Where do we start with the force of nature that is Caroline Collett? Listen to hear for yourselves…


    Guest Bio.

    Writer Caroline Collett was born in 1962 and grew up in Yorkshire, where she was a music-mad kid and teenage punk, before going on to win a scholarship to Oxford to study Modern Languages. After graduating, she became the main news writer for the newly-launched MTV Europe before becoming a presenter on both youth and film shows for Channel 4, ITV, BBC2 and SuperChannel and then a producer/director for a daily film show on BSB. In 1998, Caroline formed her own communications company, working as a creative copywriter and publicist for artists, architects and designers. Out of hours, she is a creative writer, with a special interest in memoir, music of the 70s and 80s and the interplay of art and gender.


    Links

    www.carolinecollettwriter.com

    CarolineCollettWriter (@CollettWriter) / Posts / X

    https://bsky.app/profile/collettwriter.bsky.social

    https://www.instagram.com/caroline_r_collett/

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    Contact us: punkscholarspodcast@gmail.com


    The PSP theme music is excerpted from “Crows” by Watch You Drown. All rights reserved.


    Season 2, Episode 6 was recorded on November 13, 2025 on Zoom with participants in the UK. Paul Hollins hosted and produced this episode. Jessica Schwartz edited the audio. Jessica Schwartz and Paul Hollins edited the transcript, available here.

    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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    59 mins
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