Intellect 'Punk Collection' Discount

Intellect are pleased to present their PUNK collection for 2020.

Between 1-31 December 2020, PSN members & conference attendees can get a 30% discount on books within the Intellect ‘Punk Collection’ using the code PUNK30 online.

Titles include:

Punk Now!!: Contemporary Perspectives on Punk

Edited by Matt Grimes and Mike Dines

Punk Now!! explores contemporary and non-Anglophone punk as well as its most anti-establishment tendencies through a collection of papers from the second Punk Scholars Network International Conference and Postgraduate Symposium. This edited collection informs us about punk today and punk at the margins, areas that are poorly served in punk studies.

Discounted price: £56.00

Some Wear Leather, Some Wear Lace: A Worldwide Compendium of Postpunk and Goth in the 1980s

By Andrea Harriman and Marloes Bontje

Some Wear Leather, Some Wear Lace focuses on the music, the individual and the creativity of a worldwide community, a subject not often covered by academic books. Whether you were part of the scene or are just fascinated by different modes of expression, this book will transport you to another time and place.

Discounted price: £18.55

The Anarchist Cinema

By James Newton

This book examines the complex relationships that exist between anarchist theory and film. No longer hidden in obscure corners of cinematic culture, anarchy is a theme that has traversed arthouse, underground and popular film. 

Discounted price: £49.00

The Punk Reader: Research Transmissions from the Local and the Global

Edited by Mike Dines, Alastair Gordon, Paula Guerra and Russ Bestley

The first offering in Intellect’s new Global Punk series, The Punk Reader: Research Transmissions from the Local and the Global is the first edited volume to explore and critically interrogate punk culture in relation to contemporary, radicalized globalization.

Discounted price: £17.50

We also welcome proposals for new manuscripts, please contact either m.dines@mdx.ac.uk or r.bestley@lcc.arts.ac.uk for more information. Alternatively, please visit https://www.punkscholarsnetwork.com/books-psn-intellect-books-imprint

Intellect is also thrilled to introduce its PUNK journal. Punk & Post-Punk is a peer-reviewed journal for academics, artists, journalists and the wider cultural industries. Placing punk and its progeny at the heart of interdisciplinary investigation, it is the first forum of its kind to explore this rich and influential topic in both historical and critical theoretical terms. For Call for Papers and to learn more about the journal, click here. 

Book Release: I Want Out - a book of poetry by Stephen Spencer-Fleet

Stephen Spencer-Fleet’s evocative, stripped-back style of poetry first appeared in the Itchy Monkey Press book Some of Us Scream, Some of Us Shout (2015). Entitled ‘I Changed My World,’ and delivered in the form of a short, prose-like poem, the author began with a declaration of intent: ‘From 1979 I felt that I needed to overthrow the government and change the world.’ He continued, ‘I started with a zine, a band and a leaflet home production line’ kick-starting an ‘urgent period of my life [which] brought me into contact with many great people, some formative life experiences and a type of radical politicisation that has stayed with me over the subsequent decades.’ Although he admits that his dream of overthrowing the government was a tad over ambitious, through ‘the simplicity and clarity of the message… I changed my world and that was good enough.’ Soon after, he contributed to Itchy Monkey’s And All Around Was Darkness (2017) with his poem ‘Stopping the City – A Micro Memory,’ where he recounted his experiences from the Stop the City demonstrations organised to disrupt the activities of financial institutions in London in the early 1980s. Again, the language is sparse and provocative. ‘We were sick of the fucking war machine,’ he notes, ‘sick of the City brokering death.’ 

Spencer-Fleet’s next appearance was in Factories Run by Robots (2018), an anthology of poetry where the author contributed poems that covered the stark reality of austerity (‘Hell Right Here’), political coercion (‘The Script’) and punk (‘The Tao of Punk’). ‘Every reader will have their favourite,’ said Ged Baby in his review of Factories… for Louder Than War. ‘Stephen Spencer-Fleet is probably mine,’ he noted, adding ‘he’s beautifully concise and tough like hardcore.’ Indeed, Spencer-Fleet’s poetry is often redolent, utilising a stripped-back style of writing that draws upon single words and short phrases as forms of expression. There is a nod to Kerouac’s stream of consciousness; to William Burroughs-style cut ups and visions; and to a punk template of shock tactics, of being raw and honest. I don’t want to ‘introduce’ the poems you have before you. I don’t want to give you a hint, or a forewarning of subject matter. All I can say is that you will not be disappointed. To paraphrase, Spencer-Fleet is tough: fucking hardcore. 

Books cost £6 plus P&P.

Please contact Stephen Spencer-Fleet on: sspencerfleet@gmail.com

Punk Scholars Network 7th Annual International Conference starts to take shape

Because of the ongoing Covid-19 restrictions placed around international travel, the Punk Scholars Network are using their DiY punk experience to not let that prevent them from holding their popular annual conference and post graduate symposium. The PSN Steering Group and conference coordinating committee, headed up by Pete Dale, have taken the bold decision to put the conference online for the first time.

As you can imagine this is a mammoth task to coordinate, and our affiliates from around the world have all embraced this idea fully and are busy organising and coordinating conference events in their countries. You can get more information on the conference here

This week Muhammad Fakhran Al Ramadhan, who is a lecturer at the Universitas Islam 45 Bekasi and our affiliate in Indonesia, sent through a poster promoting the CFP and what he and his colleagues are organising in Indonesia for the forthcoming PSN 7th International Conference and Post-graduate Symposium. It looks fantastic, with some great keynote speakers, and we are already really excited about ‘virtually’ attending this and the other amazing events that our other affiliates will be organising and presenting. This is building up to be a truly international conference this December.

Global Punk Reader Vol 3 update and “Hello PSN Brasil”

Progress is moving along at a solid pace for the forthcoming Global Punk Reader 3 (part of the PSN Global Punk Series). All the chapter contributions have been received, sent to the peer reviewers and most of them have now been returned to the authors for minor edits and amends. The fact that there are very few suggestions for edits and amends from the peer reviewers, is a testament to the high quality of the authorship and the content of each chapter contribution. There is a wide range of subject matter covered in the forthcoming book, with topics such as gender politics, feminism, film cultures, hauntology, technology, Japanese garage punk and ethics. Such is the breadth of punk scholarship from across the globe. With the final editorial process taking place in the late summer/early autumn we are hoping to have this edition published and ready to acquire in Spring 2021.

On another global note its “hello Punk Scholars Network Brasil”. We are very pleased to welcome our newest global affiliates João Bittencourt and Maiara Rodrigues, two academics who have kindly volunteered to head up the new PSN Brasil affiliation and will be developing and promoting the PSN and supporting other punk scholars in their country. We are really looking forward to hearing from them in the future about how things are developing in Brasil in terms of punk scholarship. They will also be contributing to the forthcoming 7th PSN International Conference and Post Graduate Symposium which due to ongoing global Covid-19 restrictions will, for the first time ever, take place online, just demonstrating how punk DiY principles are at the heart of what the PSN does. We will always find ways to mutate, survive and press forward. Thanks to Pete Dale and the PSN conference team for coordinating this monumental task. Details of the conference can be found in a previous blog post on this website.