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Associate Professor of Music Theory, University of Michigan

Karen Fournier's principal area of research, the role played by women in the British punk movement during its foundation in the mid-1970s, has generated a book-length study provisionally entitled Punk and Disorderly: Acting Out Gender in Class in Early British Punk. The study focuses its attention on such British bands as Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Slits, X-Ray Spex, the Adverts, and Delta 5, and examines how punk challenged and redefined conventional gender stereotypes in popular culture. Additionally, she has published essays on other aspects of British and American punk in such collections as Beyond No Future: Cultures of German Punk (eds. Mirko Hall, Seth Howes, and Cyrus Shahan), Saints, Sinners, and Seekers: A Collection of Essays on Rock and Religion (eds. Alex DiBlasi and Bob McPartland), Albums (ed. James Perone), and An Encyclopedia of the 100 Greatest Bands of All Times (ed. David Moskovitz).

Most recently, Fournier contributed the volume entitled The Words And Music of Alanis Morissette to the Praeger Singer-Songwriter Series. While only tangentially related to her interest in punk, this book nonetheless explores similar issues surrounding societal expectations of, and limits placed upon, female behavior. Among other things, the book argues that the anger and aggression that marks Morissette's 1995 breakthrough album, Jagged Little Pill, traces a direct lineage to the "hysteria" parodied in the performances of many late-1970s female punks.

Experience

  • –present
    Associate Professor of Music Theory, University of Michigan