Wow, all. Can you believe that we’re already four episodes into the Punk Scholars Podcast?! And do we have an episode for you…Introducing Ellen Bernhard - she’s the current President of the Punk Scholars Network US, and she has done compelling work on contemporary US punk scenes and has a knack for critical interrogations of punk humor. Her entry point into punk and its scholarly endeavors offers a critical contemplation on punk's mass mediation and compels conversations around that which her work and publications have touched: community, inclusion, and diversity in scenes. So give this episode a listen and learn from our resident Media and Communications punk scholar, Dr. Ellen Bernhard.

About Our Guest

Ellen Bernhard is an Assistant Professor of Communication at Georgian Court University in New Jersey and President of the PSN US chapter. Her research focuses on contemporary punk scenes and their relationships with popular culture and current events. Recent research addresses the connection between fans’ early introductions to punk rock via commercial means (Punk-O-Rama and Tony Hawk’s Pro-Skater soundtracks) and contextualizes these introductions into an understanding of a current punk rock identity. Ellen is also interested in the rhetoric of punk and the genre’s use of humor to critique and satirize. Her most recent article, “Conspicuous Co-Optation: Exploring the Subculture and Pop Culture Connection at Gainesville’s Fest” was published in Punk & Post-Punk in 2023. Her book, Contemporary Punk Rock Communities: Scenes of Inclusion and Dedication was published by Lexington Books in 2019. Currently, Ellen is co-editing a volume, tentatively titled Bad Religion: Punk Politics, Philosophy and Pedagogy, with Paul Fields at Buckinghamshire New University. She is also working on an article that looks at the semiotic lampooning that unfolded at a punk show that took place at Four Seasons Total Landscaping, the site of Rudy Giuliani’s disastrous press conference in Philadelphia following the 2020 US presidential election.

Ellen’s PSP Playlist:

Adolescents. 1981. "Amoeba." Adolescents.; Bad Religion. 1989. "Change of ideas." No Control.; Copyrights. 2014. "Away we go." Report.

Descendents. 2021. "Nightage." 9th and Walnut.; Hot Water Music. 2022. "Collect your things and run." Feel the Void.; Lawrence Arms. 2006. "Lose your illusion 1." Oh! Calcutta!; Menzingers. 2010. "Home outgrown." Chamberlain Waits.; None More Black. 2010. "Iron mouth act." Icons.; Nothington. 2009. "Not looking down." Roads, Bridges and Ruins.; Rancid. 1994. "Gave it away."Let’s Go!

Links/For More Information

PSN ig: @punkscholarsnetwork.us

My ig: @dr.elliesoho

Email: punkscholarsnetworkusa@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 1, Episode 4 was recorded on August 20, 2024 on Zoom with participants in the UK and the US. Paul Hollins and Jessica Schwartz co-hosted and co-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.

In this episode, co-hosts and producers, Jessica Schwartz (UCLA) and Paul Hollins (Bolton), are immersed in the world of British punk history as it unfolds as a creative, complex, critical, and artistically heterogeneous way of experimenting with identity and/as culture.

And, we were kept in suspense with the Sham 69 question…

You won’t want to miss the breakdown of this question and our overall journey into Britain’s punk history with Professor Matthew Worley who explains the messiness of it all in such a clear way–offering connections between punk and porn (via the Enlightenment!), and how punk can be appreciated as decidedly political while also having its historical connections to (and, at times being co-opted and pulled between) capital “P” political movements.

About Our Guest

Matthew Worley is a Professor of Modern History at the University of Reading. His books include No Future: Punk, Politics and British Youth Culture, 1976–84 (2017) and Zerox Machine: Punk, Post-Punk and Fanzines, 1976–88 (2024). Associated articles may be found in such journals as Contemporary British History, History Workshop, Twentieth Century British History, and Journal of British Studies. He is a co-founder of the Subcultures Network and sometimes a collaborator with the artist Scott King under the banner of Crash!

For More Information

Subcultures Network

Punk in the East

Our Subversive Voice · The history and politics of the English protest song

Past! Future! In Extreme!: Looking for Meaning in the "New Romantics", 1978-82 - YouTube

Full article: Whip in my valise: British punk and the Marquis de Sade, c. 1975–85

Zerox Machine | Reaktion Books

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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 1, Episode 3 was recorded on July 2, 2024 on Zoom with participants in the UK and the US. Paul Hollins and Jessica Schwartz co-hosted and co-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.

We're back with the second PSP episode, and to say this is a must-listen is an understatement...

From the Marquis de Sade to Yoko Ono, from Jordan in London 1976 to Bertolt Brecht’s Pirate Jenny in Berlin 1928, from the art of smashing an instrument to play vs. work—Jessica Schwartz and Paul Hollins met up with Marie Arleth Skov to talk all things punk and art history. We talked about the rejection of the male genius and the negation of the notion of progress, about how sometimes in punk, the false is true, and the surreal is real, about the isolation of West Berlin, and TOO MUCH FUTURE in the GDR. And just a little bit about Ani f*cking DiFranco.

About Our Guest

Dr. Marie Arleth Skov is a Danish art historian who lives in Berlin. She has written numerous articles and book chapters about punk and art ~ and about punk and art history, especially the connections to Dada and surrealism. She has also written a book called PUNK ART HISTORY: Artworks from the European No Future Generation, which was published by Intellect Books in 2023. Currently, she is researching for a large exhibition about the topic of the body in punk, which is set to open at ARoS art museum in Denmark in 2026.

For More Information

Intellect Books | Punk Art History - Artworks from the European No Future Generation, By Marie Arleth Skov

Research project on the body in punk culture to form basis of a new ARoS exhibition

Marie Arleth Skov — Punk Scholars Network

Punk Art History Playlist - playlist by MAS | Spotify

Musical Examples

(excerpted from “Punk Art History Playlist”)

• “Midsummer New York.” Yoko Ono. Source: Secretly Canadian / Chimera Music
• “L'Anarchie Pour Le UK.” Performed by Louis Brennon, Sex Pistols. Written by Glen Matlock, John Lydon, Paul Cook, Stephen Philip Jones. Produced by Dave Goodman. Source: UMC (Universal Music Catalogue).
• “Die Dreigroschenoper: Akt II, Die Seeräuber-Jenny oder Träume eines Küchenmädchens” ("Meine Herren, heute sehen Sie mich Gläser abwaschen") Performed by Lotte Lenya, Wilhelm Brückner-Rüggeberg, Wolfgang Neuss. Written by Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill. Source: Sony Classical

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The PSP theme music is excerpted from “Crows” by Watch You Drown. All rights reserved. Season 1, Episode 2 was recorded on June 10, 2024 on Zoom with participants in Germany, the UK, and the US. Paul Hollins and Jessica Schwartz co-hosted and co-produced this episode. Jessica Schwartz edited the audio. Jessica Schwartz and Paul Hollins edited the transcript.

Contact us at: punkscholarspodcast@gmail.com

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