Riffs | RADICALS

A Punk Pedagogies Manifesto

We, the Riffs editors declare:

To engage with our students through Riffs as a process, a platform and a living collection of experimental academic texts.

To make sure that our pedagogy informs our research and that our research informs our pedagogy.

To encourage our students to experiment with scholarly research and writing.

To make Riffs an inclusive and inspirational space.

To give due thanks and credit to those who work with us and inspire us.

To organise events that offer a space for thinking through and producing things/ideas/stuff.

To question academia when it gets stale and to offer alternative ways of doing.

To think about audiences beyond academia and encourage our students to do the same.

To share our ideas, practice and processes with others.

An Invitation to Write Club

Riffs-led student work at Birmingham City University

Inspired by the work of researchers at the University of Sussex and Goldsmiths, the Riffs editorial team are embedding their engagement with the journal and Riffs publications into their teaching at Birmingham City University.

From using Riffs pieces to explore a range of themes and genres to considering the range of forms through which research can be communicated to different audiences, Riffs offers another way to engage creatively with future popular music researchers, practitioners and industry professionals.

This section of the website showcases the work of BA and MA students created during Riffs-focused workshops, research groups and seminar sessions.

Collage by Laura Chen

This initiative will be led by Riffs editors Asya Draganova, Iain Taylor and Matt Grimes at Birmingham City University.

With special thanks to Professor Lucy Robinson, and the “Post Punk Britain” team at the University of Sussex, and the Sound System Outernational collective at Goldsmiths (University of London) for their research- and student-led approaches to learning.