Josh Kun
New America Fellow, 2027
Josh Kun is a cultural historian, writer, and curator whose work focuses on the arts and politics of cultural connection. He is Professor and Chair in Cross-Cultural Communication at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. His books include Audiotopia: Music, Race, and America, Songs in the Key of Los Angeles, and The Tide Was Always High: The Music of Latin America in Los Angeles. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker, and many other publications. As a curator of exhibitions and performances, he has worked with the Getty, The Huntington, the Grammy Museum, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, the California African American Museum, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among others. He is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, a Berlin Prize, and an American Book Award.
Kun is writing a book of narrative nonfiction, Beats Across Borders: A Migrant Songbook (under contract with FSG). Based on over five years of research and interviews with musicians and music listeners, he is exploring how global migrations and displacements are being met with music and song, how these musical movements are changing the way the world sounds, and the role music plays in navigating detention and deportation, as well as resettlement and cultural integration. Based on the structure of a songbook, his book unfolds in refugee camps, detention centers, border checkpoints, and barber shops, and across Los Angeles, London, Berlin, Tijuana, Lampedusa, Gaza City, and Lincoln, Nebraska.
This bio reflects the fellow’s work and affiliations as of their fellowship year.
Selected Work
- Sidewalk Serenade: A Band of Day Laborers Sing for the Detained: A profile for The California Sunday Magazine of Los Jornaleros del Norte, a Los Angeles–based band of day laborers whose music reflects the experiences and struggles of immigrant communities.
- Cultures in the Crossfade: Lincoln, Nebraska: A USC Annenberg film exploring how music creates connections between local and refugee communities.
Fellowships
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