Josh Kun

Josh
Kun

Professor and Chair in Cross-Cultural Communication
Vice Provost for the Arts
An award-winning cultural historian, critic and curator, Josh Kun is a 2016 MacArthur Fellow and expert on the intersection of arts, culture and politics, with an emphasis on popular music.
Josh Kun
An award-winning cultural historian, critic and curator, Josh Kun is a 2016 MacArthur Fellow and expert on the intersection of arts, culture and politics, with an emphasis on popular music.
Expertise: 
Arts and Culture, Digital Media, Diversity and Inclusion, Education, Entertainment, Ethics, Gender and Sexuality, Global, History, Los Angeles, Popular Culture, Race and Ethnicity, Social Justice
Center Affiliation: 

Josh
Kun

Professor and Chair in Cross-Cultural Communication
Vice Provost for the Arts

Tabs

Josh Kun is an author and editor of many books and anthologies, and the curator of numerous art, music and public humanities projects. His research and practice focus on the arts, music and politics of cultural connection, with an emphasis on archives, global migration and Los Angeles. He has worked with The Getty Foundation, SFMOMA, the Grammy Museum, the California African American Museum, The Vincent Price Museum of Art, and more. From 2013–19, he led a trilogy of projects based on the special collections of the Los Angeles Public Library that resulted in a celebrated series of books, exhibitions, and public programs. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker, and more. He co-edits the book series Refiguring American Music for Duke University Press, serves on the editorial boards of Public Culture, Journal of Popular Music Studies and the Music Research Annual, and on the boards of Dublab and the University of California Humanities Research Institute. He co-curates CALA Crossfade Lab and directs The Popular Music Project of the Norman Lear Center.

Awards and Honors:

MacArthur Fellow, MacArthur Foundation (2016)
Berlin Prize, American Academy in Berlin (2018)
American Book Award, Before Columbus Foundation (2006)

The Autograph Book of L.A.: Improvements on the Page of the City (Angel City Press, 2019)
Double Vision: The Photography of George Rodriguez (Hat & Beard, 2018)
The Tide Was Always High: The Music of Latin America in Los Angeles, editor (University of California Press, 2017)
To Live and Dine in L.A.: Menus and the Making of the Modern City (Angel City Press,  2015)
Songs in the Key of Los Angeles (Angel City Press, 2013)
Black and Brown in Los Angeles: Beyond Conflict and Coalition, co-editor with Laura Pulido (University of California Press, 2013)
Tijuana Dreaming: Life and Art at the Global Border, co-editor with Fiamma Montezemolo (Duke University Press, 2012)
Audiotopia: Music, Race, and America (University of California Press, 2005)