"Come as You Are" to the UK’s first academic conference dedicated to grunge

The UK’s first academic conference dedicated to grunge is to take place in York next month. Grunge Included 2026 is hosted at York St John University on Monday 7 September in the Creative Centre at the Lord Mayor’s Walk campus in York.  

Created by York St John University PhD researchers Kristīne and Sintija Brence, Grunge Included is a multidisciplinary international conference looking at how grunge developed, why it became such a powerful cultural movement and why its influence continues to shape music and popular culture today. The event will bring together academics and researchers from Poland, Latvia, the United States and across the UK. 

Audiences at this free event will hear an exploration of grunge as much more than a musical genre. They can expect a dissection of its influence on politics, culture, society, identity, design, fashion, art and alternative music more widely. Topics range from grunge political graphic design, troubling feminism, grunge protest in Africa, grunge and neurodivergence, philosophy of sound and beyond. 

A key highlight of the day is a Q&A with Gordon Raphael, the legendary record producer and musician best known for his work with The Strokes. Raphael has also worked with influential artists including Green River, connecting his career directly to the wider history of Seattle's alternative music scene.  

The ‘lineup’ also includes: 

• Silencing The Alternative America: Parents Music Resource Centre and Grunge Politics (Sintija Brence) 

• Neither Baby nor a Doll, Neither Riot nor a Girl: Courtney Love’s Troubling Feminism (Klaudia Rachubińska) 

• “Load Up On Guns”: violence, authenticity, and protest in the making of Nirvana’s Nevermind (James How) 

• Voices of Resistance: From Grunge to Afrobeat and the Politics of Protest Music in Africa (Michael Ayokunle Osagie) 

• ‘Seattle was my beacon and muse, but it was never really mine’: Reimagining the Pacific Northwest music scene in Carrie Brownstein’s Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl and Kathleen Hanna’s Rebel Girl (Amy McCarthy) 

• Humour and Satire in Nirvana and Mudhoney (John Moores) 

• Visual Protest and Ideology: Art Chantry, Grunge Design, and American Political Culture (Kistīne Brence) 

• The Tumblr Generation: How 2010 Emo Culture Reimagined Grunge (Grace Elizabeth Emerson)

• Live Through This: Comparing Coco Chanel to Cobain’s Cardigan: Why Grunge Fashion will always be in Style (Joi Katskee)

• Before I Had the Language: Grunge, Neurodivergent Difference and Alternative Music as Teenage Refuge (Zana Bayley) 

Conference organisers and twin sisters, Kristīne and Sintija Brence are both Humanities PhD students at York St John University and are both self-published authors on the social and political impact of alternative rock culture.  

They shared a bit more about the reason for and relevance of Grunge Included 2026. 

Kristīne Brence said: 

"We are both passionate about music, especially punk and grunge music of the 1990s and want to showcase how grunge has many social and political functions within society. This conference will be a testament to this, as well as to the fact that grunge’s legacy and activism are still present today.     

“Many times, young researchers and thinkers are left out of established academic networks and lose the opportunity to bring new ideas and develop the industry. This is the place where new ideas and a new generation are able to continue the conversation in a new light. Isn’t it interesting to see how a new generation views music and the grunge movement? We think it is!    

“Sintija and I created this event to bring like-minded people together and build on the platform she has developed through her blog, Grunge Included. I really hope that, as we launch this international conference, researchers from around the world can build new networks and collaborations, and we can work towards more Grunge Included events.”  

Sintija Brence said:  

“What I love about grunge is that it was never just a music genre. It was a social movement built to subvert the established 1980s political and social system in the United States. I think it's still so relevant because the issues many grunge artists wrote about, from inequality and political disillusionment to social injustice, remain just as important today.  

“A lot of teenagers are tired of the pressure that comes with social media. Apps like Instagram can make it feel like your worth is based on how good your life looks online, how much you own, or how many likes you get. It can be exhausting always comparing yourself to everyone else. That's one reason why so many people look back at the 1990s. It was the last era where life wasn't built around smartphones and social media, making it feel more real, simple, and authentic.   

“In a world where everything is polished, overproduced and which aims for minimalism, even most modern rock music sounds like that. Grunge is an escape from that. Its raw, imperfect sound captures a more authentic, realistic experience of being human, which is why so many people still relate to it today.” 

View the full programme Grunge Included 2026 Programme

The conference is almost fully booked but remaining tickets are available via Eventbrite  

Grunge Included 2026 Tickets, Monday 7 September  •  10 AM - 5 PM | Eventbrite  

Image (l - r) Sintija and Kristīne Brence