Jez Collins

Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Research
Birmingham School of Media
Faculty of Performance, Media & English

Areas of Expertise:

Music Heritage
Music Industries
Creative Industries & Cultural Policy

[tab name="Biography"]

Jez Collins brings over twenty years of experience as a social and cultural entrepreneur in the creative, and particularly music, industries in Birmingham. Jez is an early stage researcher having recently returned to academia and completed his MA.

As the founder of the Birmingham Music Archive, Jez has a keen interest in the study of music heritage which has resulted in the development of a new postgraduate award for the School of Media, as well as a research interest into the music industries with music as a tool for social change and music as culture as areas of specialism.

Jez was also an Executive Co-Producer for the award winning documentary Made in Birmingham: Reggae Punk Bhangra and sits on the board of Un-Convention and the national committee of the Community Archives & Heritage Committee. He is currently developing a research project on the role of student unions within the popular music ecology and continues to lead on the development of distance learning materials for the School of Media’s postgraduate offer.

2012 – National Committee member Community Archives & Heritage Group
2010 – present, Heritage Committee member, Birmingham Civic Society
2009 – present, Board member Un-convention
2009 – present, International Association for the Study of Popular Music
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[tab name="Research"]

Jez Collins researches the role of popular music and cultural heritage. He is interested in the role popular music plays in the manifestation of individual and collective identity formed through individual and collective memory practices particularly in the online environment. He is interested in the development of popular music as public history-making and activist archivist disciplines and the new insights these practices are bringing to the cultural, social and political understanding of the role of popular music and place.

As an early stage researcher, Jez works in collaboration with colleagues from the BCM&CR in his research projects. He is currently developing a research project about the role of student unions in popular music activity in the post war period and their relationships with the commercial music sector. He is also developing his work with Un-Convention to provide deep research material into the global grassroots independent  music industries as well as how different communities across the world use popular music as a tool for social change.

He has recently completed a collaborative research project (with Dr Paul Long, Dr Steve Harding and Nina Lakeberg) about the creative industries in Wolverhampton and is co-leading a Leonardo pan-European project (with Dr Paul Long) on the use of Innovative Media and Music Heritage Impacting Vocational Education

As well as speaking at academic conferences, Jez is often asked to speak about his work at external events across the world widening his already extensive networks of individuals, organizations and institutions.
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[tab name="Publications"]

Chapters in Edited Books/Collections

‘Mapping the Soundscapes of Popular Music Heritage’ in Les Roberts (ed.), Mapping Cultures, Palgrave.2012. (with Dr Paul Long, Birmingham City University)

Book Credit

2009 – Prof. Tim Wall and Dr Paul Long, Media Studies: Texts, Production and Context, Pearson Longman. Second edition commissioned for 2012.

Published Reports

‘The Creative Industries in Wolverhampton: Between Policy and Practice’. (A ‘Creative District’ report for “CREATIVE METROPOLES: Public Policies and Instruments in Support of Creative Industries”– co-funded by European Regional Development Fund and INTERREG IVC. See: http://www.creativemetropoles.eu) 2011 – (Co-author author/researcher with Dr Paul Long, Steve Harding & Nina Lakeberg)

For the Encouragement of Learning Copyright 1710-2010 British Council see: PDF Here 2010 –(Contributor)

2011, Made In Birmingham: Reggae Punk Bhangra. Co-Executive Producer. 63 mins documentary. Double commended RTS award winner.
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[tab name="Conferences"]

‘Hip Hop Hope in La Ciudad de la Eterna Primavera’ Subcultures, Popular Music & Social Change, London Met. 2011

Invited panel organiser, Digital Archives and Online Practice. Sites Of Popular Music Heritage. Institute of Popular Music, University of Liverpool. 2011

‘Listening for the sounds of place and memory in popular music’. Transformaciones del Sector Musical Independiente en la Era Digital. Universidad Carlos III Madrid. 2011.

‘Birmingham Popular Music Archive, A Case Study’ Inaugural Maltese Memory Music Project. University of Hull & Maletese National Archives, Valetta, Malta. 2011.

‘From Trousers to Tickets: Finding new spaces and places to exhibit Popular Music Culture’ (with Rob Horrocks, BCU).  Curiouser and Curiouser. Challenging Convention and Celebrating the Unusual in Museums and Heritage. University of Leicester. 2011.

‘Made in Birmingham: Reggae Punk Bhangra’. Film Heritage, Digital Future: Practice and Sustainability for the Film Archive Sector. Birmingham City University in collaboration with Screen West Midlands. 2011.

‘Digital tools for sustainable careers’. International Music Entrepreneurs Forum, British Council, London. 2011.

‘Using Online and Social Media – Extending Audiences’ (With Tim Wall and Paul Long BCU). Dutch Jazz and World Meeting. Music Center the Netherlands. 2010.

‘Listening for the sounds of place and memory in popular music heritage’ (with Paul Long, BCU). Mapping, Memory and the City, University of Liverpool. 2010.

‘Why not become an Author and help us build the Archive?’ (with Paul Long, BCU). Mediating Personal and Community Memories in Online Archival Work, Cybercultures: Exploring Issues Online, Interdisciplinrary.Net, Salzberg, March 12-14 2008 (online at: http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/critical-issues/cyber/cybercultures/conference-programme-abstracts-and-papers/) 2010.

‘Tell us what you know, what you think’: Birmingham Music Archive, collective memory and the politics of popular music culture’ (with Paul Long, BCU). Journal of Media Practice 10th Anniversary Symposium. Sussex University. 2009

‘Tell us what you know, what you think’ What is ‘Popular Music Heritage’, What is its Purpose and Who is it For? The Birmingham Popular Music Archive Project. IASPM, Liverpool University. 2009

‘Knowledge transfer in the Creative Industries’. Creative Growth, Interregional conference. Napier University. 2009
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Contact Jez: