Many are familiar with the commonplace narrative that punk is a “youth subculture” or mainstreamed media representations that center juvenile male figures as embodying punk’s defiant attitude and irreverent spirit across the subculture’s historical epochs. In this episode, be prepared to take all that gendered, sexist and ageist conditioning that comes with advanced capitalism’s values and have it challenged by one of the earliest Punk Scholars Network scholars, Dr. Laura Way. Drawing on her sociological studies and punk methodologies, Laura details the importance of listening to punks’ experiences at the intersections of gender, aging, and ability (broadly understood). While her monograph focuses on women, Laura also shares with us her community-based work with young fathers, showcasing the creative connections between thinking relations, community, and temporality through the dynamism of identity–and, crucially punk identity: the capacious ways in which we identify ourselves over time in compelling tension with how society thinks we ought to express such identities.
About Our Guest
Laura Way is a feminist sociologist with research interest in ageing and gender, creative and participatory methods, marginalised identities, punk pedagogies, music and subcultures. Laura's PhD led to her monograph Punk, Gender and Ageing: Just Typical Girls? (published in 2020, Emerald Press). Laura worked as a Research Fellow on the 'Following Young Fathers Further’ study (2020-4) and recently held a BA Innovation Fellowship for a collaborative project with a local Travellers' organisation. Laura is currently a senior lecturer and programme leader in sociology at the University of Roehampton (and accepting PhD students). She has recently published the book Punk, Ageing and Time, co-edited with Matt Grimes (the first collection bringing together work on punk, time/temporality and ageing), and worked with Portrait Youth and North East Young Dads and Lads on a project with young fathers exploring dress and identity. The photographs from this work are currently being exhibited at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Newcastle. She has been a Punk Scholar’s Network member since co-organising the first PSN conference with Mike Dines.
For More Info.
Scholarship: Laura Way — University of Roehampton Research Explorer
Following Young Fathers Further: Following Young Fathers Further
And a little flashback to some band days, ha!: Disarray - Mother Nature (youtube.com)
-
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 6 was recorded on October 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.
