Les Back (born 17 December 1962) is a professor of sociology at the University of Glasgow and former Director of the Centre for Urban and Community Research at Goldsmiths, University of London. He is a researcher and author of books and academic studies on topics including racism, music and urban cultures.

Biography

Les Back was born in Croydon, South London. Back's first job was as a youth worker. He studied at both undergraduate and postgraduate level at Goldsmiths, University of London, receiving his PhD in social anthropology in 1991. He subsequently worked at the Institute of Education, Birkbeck College and the Department of Cultural Studies, University of Birmingham before returning to Goldsmiths in 1993.

Key studies

Back is the author of the following books: Back has edited three books: The Auditory Cultures Reader (2003 with Michael Bull), Theories of Race and Racism: A Reader (2000 with John Solomos) and (1993) (co-editor with Anoop Nayak) Invisible Europeans?: Black people in the 'New Europe' (1993 with Anoop Nayak). Back's work focuses on the issues of race, racism, popular culture and belonging, discussed with ethnographic research often based in South London. Back is also a regular contributor to The Guardian, Times Higher Education Supplement and the New Humanist as well as contributing to online magazines including openDemocracy.net, Eurozine and The Sociological Review.

Sources

Written in Stone (2008) Sociology Working papers, Goldsmiths, University of London https://web.archive.org/web/20081024024020/http://www.sussex.ac.uk/sociology/1-4-11.html