Kevin C. Dunn is a scholar, author, novelist, musician, documentary film-maker, community activist and DIY cultural producer.
Academic books written, co-written, edited and co-edited by Kevin C. Dunn. For book chapters and journal articles, consult CV.
Stiff Little Fingers’ 1979 debut album Inflammable Material was a product of, and response to, the turbulent era in Northern Ireland known as The Troubles, giving voice to a generation of punks seeking an “Alternative Ulster” despite the band’s troubled relationship with their Belfast contemporaries. This concise book is forthcoming in the 33 1/3 book series by Bloomsbury Press.
Global Punk examines the global phenomenon of DIY (do-it-yourself) punk, arguing that it provides a powerful tool for political resistance and personal self-empowerment. Drawing examples from across the evolution of punk – from the streets of 1976 London to the alleys of contemporary Jakarta – Global Punk is both historically rich and global in scope. Looking beyond the music to explore DIY punk as a lived experience, Global Punk examines the ways in which punk contributes to the process of disalienation and political engagement. The book critically examines the impact that DIY punk has had on both individuals and communities, and offers chapter-length investigations of two important aspects of DIY punk culture: independent record labels and self-published zines. Grounded in scholarly theories, but written in a highly accessible style, Global Punk shows why DIY punk remains a vital cultural form for hundreds of thousands of people across the globe today.
The second edition of Inside African Politics, updated throughout to reflect political developments across the continent, not only provides thorough coverage of the full range of core topics, but also furthers an awareness and understanding of key theoretical issues and current debates. Drawing on their extensive teaching and fieldwork experience, Pierre Englebert and Kevin Dunn offer a straightforward, accessible style, making even complex ideas easy to understand, and a balanced approach, exposing multiple perspectives on contested issues; a focus on both states and citizens, politics from above and below; discussions of existing policies, as well as policy implications of different approaches; and an abundance of rich data and illustrative examples. The result is both an essential text and a long-term resource for students and scholars alike.
Amid an array of shifting national, regional, and global forces, how have African insurgents managed to adapt and survive? And what differences and similarities can be found, both among the continent's diverse rebellions and guerilla movements and between them and movements elsewhere in the world? Addressing these issues, the authors of Africa's Insurgents explore how new groups are emerging and existing ones changing in response to an evolving landscape.
Kevin C. Dunn and Iver B. Neumann offer a concise, accessible introduction to discourse analysis in the social sciences. A vital resource for students and scholars alike, Undertaking Discourse Analysis for Social Research combines a theoretical and conceptual review with a “how-to” guide for using the method. In the first part of the book, the authors discuss the development of discourse analysis as a research method and identify the main theoretical elements and epistemological assumptions that have led to its emergence as one of the primary qualitative methods of analysis in contemporary scholarship.
African Politics: Critical and Primary Sources is an indispensable reference collection focusing on the most important contributions in the field of African politics. Bringing together high-quality essays drawn from over half a century of journal articles, book chapters, and historical documents, supported by introductory essays, this reference work provides the essential foundation for scholars and students to engage with the field of African politics and a core reference for the launching of their own research.
In this revealing new book, Bøås and Dunn explore the phenomenon of 'autochthony' - literally 'son of the soil' - in African politics. In contemporary Africa, questions concerning origin are currently among the most crucial and contested issues in political life, directly relating to the politics of place, belonging, identity and contested citizenship. Thus, land claims and autochthony disputes are the hallmark of political crises in many places on the African continent.
Understanding the current civil war in Congo requires an examination of how the Congo's identity has been imagined over time. Imagining the Congo historicizes and contextualizes the constructions of the Congo's identity during four historical periods. Kevin Dunn explores "imaginings" of the Congo that have allowed the current state of affairs there to develop, and the broader conceptual question of how identity has become important in recent IR scholarship.
Africa has been noticeably absent in international relations theory. This new collection of essays by contemporary Africanists convincingly demonstrates the importance of the continent to every theoretical approach in international relations. This collection breaks new ground in how we think about both international relations and Africa, re-examining such foundational concepts as sovereignty, the state, and power; critically investigating the salience of realism, neo-liberalism, liberalism in Africa, and providing new thinking about regionalism, security and identity.
At the center of many of Africa's violent conflicts are movements that do not seem to fit any established theories of armed resistance. African Guerrillas offers new models for understanding these movements, eschewing one-dimensional explanations. The authors build on—and in some cases debate—insights provided in Christopher Clapham's groundbreaking work. They find a new generation of fighters—one that reflects rage against the machinery of a dysfunctional state. Their analysis of this phenomenon, combining thematic chapters and a range of representative case studies, is a crucial contribution to any effort to understand Africa's war-torn societies.
This state-of-the-art introduction to contemporary African politics has been carefully designed to provide not only thorough coverage of the full range of core topics, but also an awareness and understanding of key theoretical issues and controversies.
This collected volume draws together essays written by International Relations scholars from a variety of regional, methodological and theoretical perspectives to confront the challenges of identity-centered analysis. In particular, the contributors seek to elucidate the general meaning and methodological implications of the commonly state yet largely unexamined, assertion that identities are relational, fluid, constructed, and multiple.
Kevin Dunn is the author of the middle grade novel Vicious Is My Middle Name, published by Fitzroy Books, an imprint of Regal House Publishing. Available at local independent bookstores, Amazon, Barnes & Noble. You can also ORDER it directly from the publisher.
WINNER: 2023 Whippoorwill Book Award (for Rural Young Adults and Middle Grade Literature)
FIRST PLACE WINNER: CIBA Gertrude Warner Book Award for Middle Grade Fiction
FINALIST: 2022 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award (Juvenile Fiction)
FINALIST: 2023 NIEA Indie Excellence Award (Teen Fiction)
FINALIST: 2023 Erik Hoffner Excellence Award
You can read more about it HERE. You can follow him on Facebook HERE.
SYNOPSIS:
Named after the bassist of the Sex Pistols, 13-year-old Sydney Vicious Talcott was perfectly happy in punk-friendly Rochester, NY. But after her father dies and her brother (Joey Ramone Talcott) goes off to college, her mother moves them to Beaver Dam, NC, a small town in the Appalachian mountains. Steeped in feminist punk culture, Sydney has a hard time fitting into life at Beaver Dam Middle School, where she endures bullying from a group of rich, popular girls led by Brittany Winters. Suffering from homesickness, she befriends Shawn, a proud Affrilachian nerd, and Rita, his Guatemalan immigrant friend. She also becomes pen-pals with one of her female punk heroes, Dani DeLite of the band Lite Brite. As Sydney grows to love the beauty of her new surroundings, she is alarmed to discover a shady corporation with a horrible history of environmental abuse trying to build an asphalt plant right next to the school. Her attempts to work through the system fail, largely because of the powerful Winters family, who own the land and control the county officials. So Sydney launches a grassroots campaign against the asphalt plant using the tools she has learned from DIY (do-it-yourself) punk rock: printing zines, screen-printing t-shirts, postering, and organizing an all-age benefit concert. She has to convince her new friends that they can make a difference, especially in the face of harassment, bullying and immigration raids. At school, the principal seems to have it in for her, she doesn’t get along with her English teacher, and the friendly librarian is fired for helping her investigate the asphalt plant. But she finds support from the local hardware store owner, who lets her use his warehouse to stage a benefit concert featuring a diverse group of musical acts (including the English teacher as well as Lite Brite) which succeeds in bringing the community together and exposing the corruption of the Winters family and their ties to the shady corporation.
The book contains a few amazing illustrations by Amanda Kirk, like the rough sketch below. Also, here are pics of Kevin’s awesome kids.
In addition to his academic writing, Kevin regularly writes for two independent publications: Geneva13 and Razorcake.
Geneva13 is a “zine of the local” focusing on life in and around Geneva, NY. The zine, once published quarterly but not irregularly, was founded in 2007 by Kevin Dunn and Doug Reilly, who were also the original co-editors. The zine is currently co-edited by Kevin Dunn and Annie Greenwood. It only exists in print format with a limited print run of 800-1000 copies per issue.
Razorcake is a non-profit bi-monthly publication focused on do-it-yourself punk culture. Published since 2001, it is a one-of-a-kind resource for the DIY punk community. Kevin has published numerous band interviews (The Arrivals, Rebel Riot, Pretty Flowers, The Dumpies, Raging Nathans, Jabber, Low Culture, Oi Polloi, The Outcasts, Dott, Fur Coats, Lemuria, So Cow, Muhammadali) as well as several lengthy essays in their “One Punk’s Guide…” series, including “One Punk’s Guide to Starting Your Own DIY Record Label,” “One Punk’s Travel Guide to Indonesia,” “One Punk’s Guide to African Politics,” “One Punk’s Guide to Climate Change” and “How Punk Saved Belfast.”
Kevin’s musical pursuits take multiple forms, from playing in numerous bands to running his own record label (Girth Records) to co-founding/co-owning the Geneva Sound Factory, a recording studio and rehearsal space facility.
BANDS:
The Sriracha-chas: Geneva, NY’s worst punk band
What About Now: Geneva, NY’s favorite griefcore band
World Heroes: Two guys playing punk music over programmed beats. Way better than it sounds.
Flaccid Reflux: Galway, Ireland’s beloved band of ne’er-do-wells
State of Franklin: That delightful blend of Americana and punk
Sivle Si Dog: The grunge-punk band that will never die.
Chillee Willee & His Magik Electric Orchestra: An overlooked gem.
Republican Death Clap: The greatest art/activist band you’ve never heard of.
GIRTH RECORDS: Releasing quality noise (and steadily losing money) since 1993.
GENEVA SOUND FACTORY: State-of-the-art recording studio and rehearsal space facility in Geneva, NY.
Kevin Dunn produced and directed the full-length documentary film My Life Is Great: The Stevie Stiletto Story.
The 2009 film, covers the history of the influential band Stevie Stiletto, particularly the lead singer Ray “Stevie” McKelvey. For over 25 years, the legendary band Stevie Stiletto were punk rock stalwarts, yet never got the national recognition they deserved. After dozens of releases, thousands of shows, hundreds of brushes with the law, countless line-up changes and one terminally ill diagnosis, the band finally gets their due with this two-hour, in-depth documentary. Featuring interviews with members of the band (past and present), road crew, producers, family, friends and fans, My Life is Great covers the entirety of their storied career. Complete with live footage from the last three decades, this film is a document of a band that never got a break, never gave a damn, and never sold out.
The film had its theatrical release in Jacksonville, FL, the bands hometown. The film is available on DVD via Amazon. Sadly, a few years after its release, Ray McKelvey succumbed to cancer. Kevin dedicated his 2016 book Global Punk to Ray’s memory. RIP Ray. We miss you.
Since 2007, Kevin regulars produces and hosts the music podcast KPunk! The 45-minute podcast (to emulate one side of a 90-minute mixtape) combines the best in new and old punk and indie music. With thousands of listeners around the globe, Kevin is forever stunned that so many people give a crap about what he chooses to play.
Kevin also co-hosts the podcast “It’s More Complicated Than That” with Prof. Stacey Philbrick Yadav. The podcast focuses on world affairs and is co-created by the students of the International Relations program at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. Each episode investigates a pressing topic in world affairs. The episodes are created and co-hosted by students in the IR program and feature interviews with experts, as well as music, poetry, and other non-scholarly ways to examine the topic at hand.
Kevin is the founder and organizer of LOVE GENEVA, an independent, grass-roots movement supporting economic and social sustainability in Geneva, NY. We believe true growth and development is accomplished by encouraging and nurturing home-grown resources: whether they be independent financial endeavors or individual artistic expressions. To that ends, we seek to encourage the growth of local independent businesses and artists through multiple means.
From 2009-14, Kevin Dunn and Doug Reilly ran the Headless Sullivan Theater, Geneva's own absurdist theater group. Our goal was to bring new theater to new audiences in new spaces. We began by occupying an empty storefront space downtown and putting on amateur absurdists plays, as well we art exhibitions and musical shows. The authorities eventually requested that we cease-and-desist in that space, so we ran another production in 2014 at the upstairs balcony of a children’s indoor playground. HST has been dormant since that time, but one never knows what the future holds.
Kevin C. Dunn is a Professor at Hobart & William Smith Colleges in Geneva, NY. He is author and editor of almost a dozen academic books on topics ranging from African politics, international relations, and global punk culture. He is also a novelist, a musician, and a documentary film-maker. He’s a community activist and cultural producer. Ultimately, he is a lifelong contributor and defender of DIY punk culture. He can be reached at DUNN at HWS dot EDU.
There’s probably other stuff we’ve forgotten to include. But here is a stock image of a pretty road.
