Professor George McKay

Professor of Cultural Studies

Office Times

By appointment; George usually sees his PhD students on Wednesdays.

Biography

George has been Professor of Cultural Studies at Salford since 2005, before which he held a similar professorial post at UCLan since 1999.

He was founding Director (2005-2012) of the Communication, Cultural & Media Studies (CCM) Research Centre, which he remains an active member of. The centre’s website is accessible at http://www.salford.ac.uk/mmp/research/ccm

In September 2012 he was appointed as an Arts & Humanities Research Council Leadership Fellow for the Connected Communities Programme, initially for three years. Information is available at http://connectedcommunities.org

George’s work has been funded through large and small grants by, among others, AHRC, British Council, EU FP6, HERA/EU FP7, ESRC, British Academy, Leverhulme Trust, HEFCE. He has been an international visiting scholar at University of Southern Maine, University of Veliko Turnovo, University of Sydney.

He appears fairly regularly in the media, as an academic ‘expert’ discussing stories related to his research, and is committed to both rigorous academic scholarship and to producing work that engages with the public sphere. For instance, some of his books are written for a general readership; he has appeared on the leading academic research programme on BBC Radio 4, Thinking Allowed, several times discussing his work; he was the UK’s first professor in residence at a pop festival in 2011; and has given public lectures in venues from a tent on an allotment to a rave.

http://georgemckay.org

Teaching

Aternative Media is an undergraduate option George offers.

He has a dozen PhD students from around the world, researching topics from media studies, cultural studies, popular music. If you are interested in working with George do get in touch.

Research Interests

George’s research interests are, in general, cultural and media studies, cultural politics.

Specifically, popular music (jazz, pop festivals, disability and pop), subculture and counterculture, alternative identities and media, protest, anarchism, radical cultures, Americanisation and transatlanticism, whiteness, cultures of peace and non-violence, cultural disability studies, 'community' cultures (media, music, gardening), cultural politics of gardens and polemic landscape/space.

Qualifications and Memberships

1984 First Class BA (Hons) Combined Studies, specialising in Cultural Studies and Sociology, Hull College of Higher Education.

1992 PhD, Department of English, University of Glasgow. Thesis title: The Half-Life of Words: Narrative in Negative Fabulation.

Publications

Author and editor of many books and other outputs—journal editor, special issues, book chapters, articles—both scholarly and for the general reader. Here are the books (many more reviews, and links to open access copies, are available on George’s website):

2013:   Shakin’ All Over: Popular Music and Disability. Corporealities: Discourses of Disability series. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. AHRC-funded.

2011:   Radical Gardening: Politics, Idealism and Rebellion in the Garden. London: Frances Lincoln. Supported with a grant from Stanley Smith (UK) Horticultural Trust. A ‘Book of the Year’ 2011 (Independent on Sunday), ‘a highly original history’ (Daily Telegraph), ‘a truly important book’ (Times Higher Education).

2009:   Co-ed., with Christopher Williams, Michael Goddard, Neil Foxlee and Egidija Ramanauskaite. Subcultures and New Religious Movements in Russia and East-Central Europe. Oxford: Peter Lang. Cultural Identity Studies series, vol. 15. EU FP 6-funded. ‘A passionate insight into the largely unknown and sometimes demonized world of subcultures’ (Bulletin Quotidien Europe, European Library).

2005:   Circular Breathing: The Cultural Politics of Jazz in Britain. Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press. AHRC-funded. ‘an important contribution both to British jazz history and to British cultural history, the first volume to do both since [Eric Hobsbawm’s] The Jazz Scene of almost fifty years ago’ (Popular Music History), ‘excellent’ (Journal of British Studies), ‘well-written, witty and highly original’ (The International History Review), ‘highly recommended’ (Jazz Now), ‘George McKay is the real deal’ (Altar magazine, NYC).

2005:   Joint ed., with Pete Moser. Community Music: A Handbook (grant-aided by North West Arts/Youth Music Action Zone). Lyme Regis: Russell House Publishing. Arts Council/Music Action Zone-funded. ‘Inspirational’ (Billy Bragg), ‘a mandatory read’ (International Journal of Community Music), ‘as close to a definitive book on community music as we are likely to see for some time’ (Sounding Board).

2004:   Co-ed., with Neil Campbell and Jude Davies. Issues in Americanisation and Culture. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. HEFCE FDTL 3-funded.

2000:   Glastonbury: A Very English Fair. London: Gollancz. ‘An energetic tumble through the history of 20th century English festival culture’ (Times Literary Supplement), ‘The definitive history’ (Books Magazine), ‘The cumulative effect is to make you want to be there’ (The Scotsman)

1998:   Ed., DiY Culture: Party & Protest in 1990s Britain. London and New York: Verso. ‘virtually compulsory for anyone with an interest in protest’ (Time and Society), ‘the essential guide to the story so far’ (The Independent), ‘the most uplifting and empowering book you’ll read in a long time’ (Irvine Welsh), a Book of the Year 1998 (New Statesman).

1997:   Ed., Yankee Go Home (& Take Me With U): Americanisation and Popular Culture. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press. Supported with a publication subvention from European Association for American Studies. ‘In recent years McKay has become one of Britain’s most interesting scholars in the area of music and subcultures.… McKay’s introduction is especially helpful’ (Symbiosis).

1996:   Senseless Acts of Beauty: Cultures of Resistance Since the Sixties. London and New York: Verso. A Book of the Year 1996  (Red Pepper), ‘absorbing countercultural history’ (Mojo), ‘a seminal study’ (Jeremy Gilbert 2012), ‘The secret history of the last two decades’ (Jon Savage), ‘a must buy / blag’ (Peace News).