4000 University Drive
McKeesport, PA 15132
Biography
Zack Furness is Associate Professor of Communications at Penn State University’s
Greater Allegheny campus and the Communications Program Coordinator. He is the
author of One Less Car: Bicycling and the Politics of Automobility (Temple
University Press, 2010), editor of Punkademics (Minor Compositions /Autonomedia,
2012), and co-editor of The NFL: Critical and Cultural Perspectives (Temple
University Press, 2014). In addition to contributing to a number of scholarly
edited collections and journals, his writing has appeared in numerous web
publications, zines, and magazines including Pittsburgh Magazine, Bitch, Tropics
of Meta, The Battleground, Souciant, and Punk Planet. Zack was a longtime
contributing editor to Bad Subjects, one of the pioneering publications on the
Internet, and he has been interviewed for a variety of podcasts, radio shows,
news stories, and articles in both print and digital media. He performed in punk
bands for the better part of two decades and previously served as the WMKP Radio
General Manager at Greater Allegheny from 2015-2023.
Research Interests
Communication, Cultural Studies, punk, alternative media, bicycling, car
culture, and the politics of sport
Publications
“Alternative Media: The Art of Rebellion,” in America Now 14e for North Carolina
A&T University, Bedford, Freeman & Worth (2023), 33-44.
"The NCAA Should Cancel the Football Season," Tropics of Meta, 10 July 2020.
"Party Lines: Pittsburgh's Telephone Music Service," Pittsburgh Magazine, Nov
2019.
“Foreword,” in Punk Pedagogies in Practice, eds. Gareth Dylan Smith, Mike Dines
& Tom Parkinson (Routledge, 2017): xi-xii.
“Reframing Concussions, Masculinity and NFL Mythology in League of Denial,”
Popular Communication: The International Journal of Media and Culture, Vol. 14,
No. 1 (2016): 49-57.
Education
Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies (Ph.D. Certificate) | University of
Pittsburgh | 2006
Communication (Ph.D.) | University of Pittsburgh | 2005
Communication (M.A.) | University of Pittsburgh | 2001
English (B.A.) | Schreyer Honors College | Penn State University | 1999
Papers and Presentations
"Israeli Punk and Radical Politics in the 90s and Beyond," KISMIF (Keep It
Simple, Make It Fast!) Conference, Porto, Portugal (July 6, 2021 - July 10,
2021).
"Israeli Punk and Radical Politics in the 90s," Punk Scholars Network 7th Annual
Conference & Postgraduate Symposium, (Dec 6, 2020).
"Against Zion: Israeli Punk and Radical Politics at the Turn of the
Century," Texas A&M University (Nov 18, 2019).
"'Protest and Survive': Punk Rock and Radical Politics," University of
Pittsburgh, Department of Music (Jan 31, 2019).
“Warring Representations of the NFL, Football Masculinity and Broken Bodies,”
The Penn State Center for the Study of Sport in Society, Penn State University,
University Park (April 21, 2017).