Prospective Students Current Students Faculty Alumni & Parents Research Centers & Programs
Faculty
Faculty
Print
Email a Friend
/images/faculty/kunj.jpg
Josh Kun
Associate Professor of journalism and communication
(Joint appointment in the Department of American Studies and Ethnicity)
Contact Info
E-mail: jkun@usc.edu
Background

Prior to joining the USC Annenberg school, Josh Kun was Associate Professor of English at the University of California, Riverside. He holds a PhD in Ethnic Studies from UC Berkeley. A former Arts Writers Fellow with The Sundance Institute, he is the author of Audiotopia: Music, Race, and America (UC Press) which won a 2006 American Book Award. His articles on popular music, the pop cultures of the US-Mexico border, and the music of Los Angeles have appeared in numerous scholarly journals and anthologies. He is director of The Popular Music Project (www.usc.edu/pmp) at USC Annenberg's The Norman Lear Center.

As a critic and journalist, Kun is a regular contributor to The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Magazine, and Tu Ciudad Los Angeles. From 1998-2006, he wrote "Frequencies," a bi-weekly music column published in the San Francisco Bay Guardian and Boston Phoenix. His writing has also appeared in LA Weekly, The Believer, Guilt & Pleasure, Village Voice, SPIN, Mother Jones, Rolling Stone, and in Mexico's La Jornada and Proceso. He has written the liner notes to CDs by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, Maldita Vecindad, and Sammy Davis Jr.

In 2005, Kun was a regular critic on The Movie Show With John Ridley on American Movie Classics, and he has also appeared as a culture critic on ABC, The Disney Channel, UPN, Fox Latin America, BBC Radio, and National Public Radio. From 1999-2000, he hosted The Red Zone, Southern California's first commercial Latin Rock radio program, on 107.1 FM and in 2002 was the show's host on MTV-español. From 2003-2005, he hosted and associate produced Rokamole, a weekly Latin alternative music video show on KJLA-LATV.

Publications

Scholarly Publications

Kun, J. (2007). Abie the Fishman: On Masks, Birthmarks, and Hunchbacks. In E. Weisbard (Ed.), Listen Again: A Momentary History of Pop Music (pp. 50-68). Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press.
Kun, J. (2007). Far Out Fred: The man behind Folk Songs for Far Out Folk. Guilt & Pleasure, 6.
Kun, J (2007). How We Listen. Guilt & Pleasure, 6.

Recent News

back to top