Dr Owen Coggins
Lecturer in Sociology
Marie Jahoda 217
- Email: owen.coggins@brunel.ac.uk
- Tel: +44 (0)1895 265402
- Social Science and Communications
- Social and Political Sciences
- College of Business, Arts and Social Sciences
Summary
Owen is a Lecturer in Sociology, and recently completed a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship (September 2019 – September 2023) at Brunel, investigating ambiguity, ideology and marginal religiosity in black metal music culture. He previously worked as a Researcher at music therapy charity Nordoff Robbins, and before that completed a PhD in Religious Studies and Music at the Open University.
Owen’s interdisciplinary research concerns how religion, particularly in marginal or oppositional forms, is imagined, practiced, discussed and represented in popular music cultures. Ambiguity and ambivalence are often important issues in this research, especially when exploring music which features noise, distortion or other extreme sounds.
A monograph, Mysticism, Ritual and Religion in Drone Metal, was published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2018, and was awarded the International Association for the Study of Popular Music's 2019 Book Prize. Other publications have appeared in Popular Music, Implicit Religion, Metal Music Studies and elsewhere, addressing questions of reception, ambivalence and ideology in noise, industrial, extreme metal and other popular music genres.
Qualifications
PhD, Religious Studies & Music, The Open University.
MA, Religions, SOAS, University of London.
BA, Philosophy, King's College, University of London.
Newest selected publications
Coggins, O. (2023) 'From Stereotyped Postures to Credible Avant-Garde Strategies: The Alchemical Transformation of Drone Metal', in Herbst, J-P. (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Metal Music. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press. pp. 251 - 264. ISBN 10: 1-108-99116-5. ISBN 13: 978-1-108-99398-2. Open Access Link
Coggins, O. and Geidel, M. (2022) 'Daily struggle Gender, work and feminist realism in Clean Bandit, Sean Paul, and Anne-Marie’s “Rockabye”'. Journal of Popular Music Studies, 34 (3). pp. 59 - 79. ISSN: 1524-2226 Open Access Link
Coggins, O. (2021) 'Ecology, Estrangement and Enchantment in Black Metal’s Dark Haven'. Green Letters, 25 (2). pp. 130 - 142. ISSN: 1468-8417 Open Access Link
Coggins, O. (2020) 'Drones versus Drones: Ambient and Ambivalent Sounds against Remote Warfare', in Adelman, R. and Kieran, D. (eds.) Remote Warfare New Cultures of Violence. Minneapolis : U of Minnesota Press. pp. 255 - 280. ISBN 10: 1452960984. ISBN 13: 9781452960982.
Coggins, O. (2020) 'Drones versus Drones: Ambient and Ambivalent Sounds against Remote Warfare', in Adelman, R. and Kieran, D. (eds.) Remote Warfare New Cultures of Violence. Minneapolis : U of Minnesota Press. pp. 255 - 280. ISBN 10: 1452960984. ISBN 13: 9781452960982.