Fabian Holt

Research

Hello stranger, I'm Fabian, nice to meet you,

I have expertise in a couple of disciplines and fields, especially music, politics, and media. I have published five books in English and worked internationally at the University of Chicago, Columbia University, Humboldt University of Berlin, and New York University’s Institute for Public Knowledge.

My primary areas of expertise are 1) political sociology and communication, with a focus on climate, and 2) the sociology of music and festivals. In 2019, I transitioned from the sociology of music to political sociology out of concern with the climate crisis. My current research focuses on the politicization of climate change and how citizens can mobilize to influence public policy on climate.

I did my PhD (2001) in a music department and worked on the sociology of music festivals throughout the 2010s. This research culminated in a Habilitation in 2019, which has been reviewed in five international journals across disciplines such as anthropology, business, and music studies. The reviews describe the dissertation as a seminal work. Anthony Seeger, professor at UCLA and son of Pete Seeger, wrote: “Unique in its approach, groundbreaking in its objectives, Everyone Loves Live Music is a milestone and a point of reference for future studies.” I am also the founding editor of the 33 1/3 Europe book series published by Bloomsbury, comprising 15 titles thus far.

I have just completed a book manuscript on the climate work of a political organization in New York City. The New York chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America is part of the international democratic socialist movement that emerged in response to the crises of  economic inequality, democracy, and climate over the past decade. The book provides insight into the extraordinary development that happened in New York when thousands of young people joined the organization and develped a new approach to political organizing. For Europeans, the book shows how some of the same challenges can be found in Europe but in a more extreme form in the US and how the unique environment of New York City created the potential for a particularly powerful response to the same political issues. The book title is Organize or Burn! How New York Socialists Fight for Climate Survival and will be published in summer 2025 New York University Press.

I teach in the following areas of media and communication studies:

* Media theory

* Political communication, especially processes of politicization and the relationship between movements and parties

* Environmental sustainability communication. Organizations are faced with new public demands for environmental sustainability, and they are facing new legal demands from ESG reporting and greenwashing regulations.

Key publications:

"The Geo-Ecological Turn in Sociology and its Implications for the Sociology of the Arts" (Cultural Sociology 2022)

Everyone Loves Live Music: A Theory of Performance Institutions (Chicago 2020)

Genre in Popular Music (Chicago 2007)

The book series 33 1/3 Europe, published by Bloomsbury

Memberships:

* European Communication Research and Education Association

* International Association for the Study of Popular Music

Click here for a list of climate literature for communication students

Click here for a link to my Zoom meeting room