Sonic Intimacy and Black Diasporic Cultures: A Panel Discussion

In this seminar, Malcolm James is joined by three other researchers to consider what the concept of sonic intimacy reveals about human relations and alternative, Black and anti-capitalist politics.

How to join

This even will be held online. Please email mediaresearchsupport@leeds.ac.uk before 12noon on 17 June to request the joining link.

About the panel discussion

“Sonic intimacy” is a concept through which sound, human and technological relations can be assessed in relation to racial capitalism.

In his new book of that title, Malcolm James provides an analysis of alternative music cultures of the Black Atlantic (reggae sound systems, jungle pirate radio and grime YouTube music videos).

In this seminar, Malcolm James is joined by three other researchers (David Hesmondhalgh, Helen Kim and Julia Toppin) to consider the book and what the concept of sonic intimacy reveals about human relations and alternative, Black and anti-capitalist politics. Helen Kim will chair the discussion.  

Participants

Malcolm James 

Malcolm is a Senior Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies, and Associate Director of Sussex Centre for Cultural Studies, at University of Sussex. His research interests are in cultural studies and post-colonial approaches to race, nation, youth, the city, migration, music and sound.

He is author of Sonic Intimacy: Reggae Sound Systems, Jungle Pirate Radio and Grime YouTube Music Videos (2021), Urban Multiculture: Youth, Politics and Cultural Transformation (2015), and co-editor of Regeneration Songs: Sounds of Investment and Loss in East London (2018). @Mookron 

Helen Kim

Helen is a Lecturer in Media and Communication in the School of Media and Communication at the University of Leeds. Her research focuses on diaspora, urban migration and ‘race’ in the UK, US and Germany. 

She is the author of Making Diaspora in a Global City: South Asian Youth Cultures in London (2015). She is currently writing her second book on diasporic and postcolonial memory and twice migration based on the oral histories of the Korean ‘guestworker’ diaspora who have settled in Germany and the US. @stinkyhel 

David Hesmondhalgh

David is Professor of Media, Music and Culture in the School of Media and Communication at the University of Leeds. Among his books are The Cultural Industries (4th edition, 2019); Why Music Matters (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013); and Creative Labour: Media Work in Three Cultural Industries (Routledge, 2011, co-written with Sarah Baker).

He is also author, editor or co-editor of eight other books or special journal issues, including a 2015 special issue of Popular Communication (co-edited with Anamik Saha) on Race and Cultural Production. @hesmondthing 

Julia Toppin 

Julia is Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader of the BA Music Business Management course at the University of Hertfordshire. Julia also lectures on MA Music Business Management at University of Westminster.

Her research interests are jungle music, women in music, Black media cultures, and music industry futures. Twitter: @Miss_Toppin.