Gary Alan Fine

Gary Alan Fine (born May 11, 1950 in New York City) is an American sociologist and author. Jump to: navigation, search May 11 is the 131st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (132nd in leap years). ... Jump to: navigation, search 1950 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... New York City, officially named the City of New York, is the most populous city in the United States, the most densely populated major city in North America, and is at the center of international finance, politics, entertainment, and culture. ... Jump to: navigation, search Social interactions of people and their consequences are the subject of sociology studies. ...

Life and career

The son of Bernard David Fine and Bernice Estelle Tanz, Fine grew up in Manhattan and went to the Horace Mann School. He studied psychology at the University of Pennsylvania (Phi Beta Kappa) and then received his PhD from Harvard in social psychology. In 1976, he became an assistant professor in the sociology department at the University of Minnesota. At various times, he was a visiting professor at Indiana University (1980), the University of Chicago (1985), the University of Bremen (1986), and the University of Iceland (1988). In 1988, he received the American Folklore Society's Opie Award for the Best Scholarly Book in the field of Children's Folklore and Culture for his work With The Boys, an ethnographic study of Little League baseball teams. Jump to: navigation, search Manhattan Borough,highlighted in yellow, lies between the East River and the Hudson River. ... Jump to: navigation, search Horace Mann School Magna est veritas et prævalet (Great is the truth and it prevails)   Founded in 1887, the Horace Mann School is a prestigious college preparatory school located in New York City. ... Jump to: navigation, search Psychology (Classical Greek: psyche = soul or mind, logos = study of) is an academic and applied field involving the study of behavior, mind and thought and the neurological bases of behavior. ... Jump to: navigation, search The University of Pennsylvania (commonly referred to as Penn or UPenn, although the former is the preferred and recognized nickname of the University) is a private, nonsectarian, research university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ... The Phi Beta Kappa Society is an honor society which considers its mission to be fostering and recognizing excellence in undergraduate liberal arts and sciences. ... Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, and a member of the Ivy League. ... Social psychology is the study of the nature and causes of human social behavior, with an emphasis on how people think towards each other and how they relate to each other. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1976 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... University of Minnesota, Twin Cities This article is about the oldest and largest campus of the University of Minnesota. ... Indiana University Bloomington is the principal campus of the Indiana University system. ... The University of Chicago is a private co-educational university located in Chicago, Illinois. ... The University of Bremen (Universität Bremen) is a university of about 22,000 students and 1,500 scientists in Bremen, Germany. ... The University of Iceland (Háskóli Íslands) is a state university, founded in 1911. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1988 is a leap year starting on a Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The American Folklore Society is the scholarly association of all folklorists in the United States. ... Jump to: navigation, search Ethnography (from the Greek ethnos = nation and graphein = writing) refers to the qualitative description of human social phenomena, based on fieldwork. ... Little League is the name of a non-profit organization in the United States which organizes local childrens leagues of baseball and softball throughout the USA and the rest of the world. ... Picture of Fenway Park. ...

In 1990, he became the department head of the Department of Sociology at the University of Georgia, a position he held until 1993, after which he remained a professor. In 1990 he was also the President of the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interactionism. During the term of 1994 to 1995, he was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, affiliated with Stanford University and located in Palo Alto, California. He continued at the University of Georgia but accepted a position at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois beginning in 1997. In 2002, he was the President of the Midwest Sociological Society. He remains at Northwestern and in 2003 was a fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in the Social Sciences at Uppsala University in Sweden. Currently, he is a visiting scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation in New York City. He is married to Susan Hirsig Fine and has two children. Jump to: navigation, search 1990 is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Arch, the gateway to UGAs historic North Campus. ... 1993 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... Symbolic interactionism is a sociological perspective which examines how individuals and groups interact, focusing on the creation of personal identity through interaction with others. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1994 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1995 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Jump to: navigation, search For other meanings of Stanford, see Stanford (disambiguation). ... Downtown Palo Alto Palo Alto is a city in Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, USA. Palo Alto is located at the northern end of the Silicon Valley, and is home to Stanford University (which is technically located in an adjacent area — Stanford, California), and... State nickname: The Golden State Other U.S. States Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) Senators Dianne Feinstein (D) Barbara Boxer (D) Official languages English Area 410,000 km² (3rd)  - Land 404,298 km²  - Water 20,047 km² (4. ... Jump to: navigation, search Northwestern University has its main campus in Evanston, Illinois, on a 240-acre (970,000 m²) parcel along the shore of Lake Michigan. ... Incorporated City in 1872. ... State nickname: Land of Lincoln, The Prairie State Other U.S. States Capital Springfield Largest city Chicago Governor Rod Blagojevich (D) Senators Richard Durbin (D) Barack Obama (D) Official languages English Area 149,998 km² (25th)  - Land 143,968 km²  - Water 6,030 km² (4. ... 1997 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Jump to: navigation, search 2002(MMII) is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Jump to: navigation, search 2003(MMIII) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Uppsala University (Swedish Uppsala universitet) is a public university in Uppsala, Sweden. ... The Russell Sage Foundation is a small foundation located in New York City that is devoted exclusively to research in the social sciences. ...

Academic focus

Whispers on the Color Line by Gary Alan Fine and Patricia Turner

Fine has written ethnographies of a number of diverse small group activities from analyses of Dungeons and Dragons players and mushroom hunters to high school policy debaters and restaurant workers. Fine maintains that these different groups and distinct areas connect: "My central research and writing focus is on the relationship between culture and social culture. This interest informs all of my writing from my study of Little League baseball to that of rumor to that of fantasy games. The question I ask is how is expressive culture shaped by the social system in which we all live and how does this social system affect the culture that we create and that we participate in. I examine the way in which small groups affect and give meaning to our shared experiences." The original Dungeons & Dragons set Dungeons & Dragons (abbreviated as D&D or DnD) is a fantasy role-playing game (RPG) published by Gary Gygax and David Arneson in January 1974. ... Mushroom hunting (or mushrooming) is the activity of searching for mushrooms in the wild, typically for consumption. ... Jump to: navigation, search Policy Debate (also known as Cross-Examination Debate) is a form of speech competition in which teams of two debate whether or not a specific policy action should be enacted. ... Toms Diner, a restaurant in New York made familiar by Suzanne Vega and the television sitcom Seinfeld A restaurant is an establishment that serves prepared food and beverages to be consumed on the premises. ... Look up Culture on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Wikinews has news related to this article: Culture and entertainment Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Cultural Development in Antiquity Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Culture and Civilization in Modern Times Classificatory system for cultures and civilizations, by Dr. Sam Vaknin...

His work on rumor has made a substantial contribution to the understanding of urban legends and the transmission of rumors. In 2001, he co-authored a book with University of California-Davis Professor Patricia Turner on rumors in the African-American community and rumors and urban legends held by whites about blacks in the United States. He is currently researching rumors related to the September 11 attacks and terrorism. A soon-to-be-published manuscript deals with the social production and communication of scientific work at the National Weather Service. A rumor (British English: rumour) is a piece of purportedly true information that is circulated without substantiating evidence. ... Urban Legend is also the name of a 1998 movie. ... Jump to: navigation, search 2001: A Space Odyssey. ... The University of California, Davis, commonly abbreviated to UC Davis or UCD is one of the ten University of California campuses. ... Jump to: navigation, search African Americans, also known as Afro-Americans, Black Americans, or simply blacks are an ethnic group in the United States whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Africa. ... Jump to: navigation, search The September 11, 2001 attacks were a series of suicide attacks against the United States conducted on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. ... The term terrorism is largely synonymous with political violence, and refers to a strategy of using coordinated attacks which typically fall outside of the time, place, and manner of conduct commonly understood as within the bounds of conventional warfare. ... // What is science? There are different theories of what science is. ... The National Weather Service (NWS) is one of the six scientific agencies that make up the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the United States government. ...

Another area of research includes the complicated historical and social reputations of figures like Benedict Arnold, Fatty Arbuckle, Herman Melville, Vladimir Nabokov, Warren Harding, Sinclair Lewis, and Henry Ford. On August 4, 2004, several month before the 2004 Presidential Election, he set off a minor storm, especially in the political blogger community, with his Op-Ed piece in the Washington Post "Ire to the Chief" that argued that the commonly-expressed hatreds of Presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Richard Nixon reflected their behavior and activities in youth more than their specific policies as President.[1] Jump to: navigation, search Benedict Arnold For other people of the same name, see Benedict Arnold (disambiguation). ... Roscoe Conkling Arbuckle (March 24, 1887 – June 29, 1933) was an American silent film comedian. ... Jump to: navigation, search Herman Melville Herman Melville (August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, essayist, and poet. ... Image:Nabokov. ... Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 - August 2, 1923) was the 29th (1921-1923) President of the United States and the sixth President to die in office. ... Sinclair Lewis Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885–January 10, 1951) was an American novelist and playwright. ... Jump to: navigation, search Time Magazine, January 14, 1935 Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was the founder of the Ford Motor Company and is credited with contributing to the creation of a middle class in American society. ... Jump to: navigation, search August 4 is the 216th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (217th in leap years), with 149 days remaining. ... Jump to: navigation, search 2004(MMIV) is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Presidential electoral votes by state. ... An Op-Ed is a piece of writing expressing an opinion. ... ... Jump to: navigation, search Osama bin Laden Usāmah bin Muhammad bin `Awad bin Lādin (born March 10, 1957) (Arabic: ), commonly known as Osama bin Laden, or Usama bin Laden, (Arabic: ), is the founder of al-Qaeda, a Sunni Islamist terrorist network that has been involved in attacks against... Jump to: navigation, search William Jefferson Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe, III on August 19, 1946) was the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. ... Jump to: navigation, search Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the thirty-seventh President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. ...

Fine is also a major figure in the study of the work of Erving Goffman and the theory of symbolic interactionism. He co-edited with Gregory W. H. Smith a major compilation of Goffman's work and of criticism and analysis of his contribution to the social sciences. Together with Kent Sandstrom and Dan Martin, he has produced a forthcoming textbook on symbolic interactionism entitled Symbols, Selves, and Social Reality: A Symbolic Interactionist Approach to Sociology and Social Psychology. Erving Goffman (June 11, 1922 - November 19, 1982), was a Canadian sociologist and writer. ... Symbolic interactionism is a sociological perspective which examines how individuals and groups interact, focusing on the creation of personal identity through interaction with others. ...

Other areas

Restaurants

In addition to his analysis of restaurant establishment culture in his 1996 book Kitchens: The Culture of Restaurant Work, Fine considers himself a sort of amateur restaurant critic. He is currently maintaining a blog, Veal Cheeks, describing his restaurant visits while living in New York City. His writing style, punchy and wry, can also be seen in his review of Eric Schlosser's book, the Fast Food Nation, for Reason magazine.[2] Eric Schlosser is an American journalist and author. ... Jump to: navigation, search Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal (2001) is a book by Eric Schlosser, first serialized in Rolling Stone magazine in 1999, which examines the fast food industry in the United States. ... The libertarian Reason Magazine dedicated an issue to Ayn Rands influence one hundred years after her birth. ...

Art

Another subject in which Fine has combined his personal and academic interests is art. While researching his book about outsider art Everyday Genius, he became well-acquainted with many of the major figures and artists in that segment of the art world. He studied the cases of major outsider (self-taught) artists like Henry Darger, Bill Traylor, Edgar Tolson, Thornton Dial, Lonnie Holley, Martin Ramirez, Sam Doyle, and Howard Finster. He is also an avid collector of outsider art himself. While researching the book and living in Georgia, he was a member of the Nexus Center for Contemporary Art and a board member at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. He is also currently a board member of the Intuit: Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art in Chicago. Resources ArtLex. ... Adolf Wölflis Irren-Anstalt Band-Hain, 1910 The term Outsider Art was coined by art critic Roger Cardinal in 1972 as an English synonym for Art Brut (which literally translates as Raw Art or Rough Art), a label created by French artist Jean Dubuffet to describe art created... Henry Darger (1892–1973) was a recluse who spent his life working as a janitor in the Chicago area. ... Bill Traylors, Construction w/Figures and Animals, 1943 Bill Traylor (April 1, 1854-October 23, 1949) was a self-taught artist born an Alabama slave. ... Edgar Tolson (1904-1984) was a woodcarver from Kentucky who became a well-known folk artist. ... Martin Ramirez (1885-1963) was a Mexican outsider artist who spent most of his adult life institutionalized in a California mental hospital, diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic. ... The Reverend Howard Finster (December 2, 1916- October 22, 2001) was a visionary artist from Summerville, Georgia who was inspired by God to spread his gospel through the environment of Paradise Garden and over 46,000 pieces of sacred art. ... High Museum, Atlanta. ... This article is about the state capital of Georgia. ... Chicago (officially named the City of Chicago) is the third largest city in the United States (after New York City and Los Angeles), with an official population of 2,896,016, as of the 2000 census. ...

Policy Debate

During his research for Gifted Tongues: High School Debate and Adolescent Culture, he followed and observed several high school policy debate teams in Minnesota. The book depicts an activity, although popular in United States, that is often seen as esoteric and confusing. His son, Todd David Fine, as described in the dedication to the book, first saw a video of the activity as a young child while Fine was researching the book. Apparently inspired, in high school, Todd, along with his partners Adam Goldstein and Julie Bashkin, went on to capture the national-circuit debate championship the Tournament of Champions and the Barkeley Forum at Emory University, another major championship in the activity. Jump to: navigation, search Policy Debate (also known as Cross-Examination Debate) is a form of speech competition in which teams of two debate whether or not a specific policy action should be enacted. ... State nickname: North Star State Other U.S. States Capital Saint Paul Largest city Minneapolis Governor Tim Pawlenty (R) Senators Mark Dayton (D) Norm Coleman (R) Official languages None Area 225,365 km² (12th)  - Land 206,375 km²  - Water 18,990 km² (8. ... Emory University is a private university in Atlanta, Georgia. ...

Works

• (With Ralph Rosnow) Rumor and Gossip: The Social Psychology of Hearsay, Elsevier-North Holland (New York, NY), 1976.
• Shared Fantasy: Role Playing Games As Social Worlds, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 1983.
• Talking Sociology, Allyn and Bacon (Boston, MA), 1985.
• With the Boys: Little League Baseball and Preadolescent Culture, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 1987.
• (Editor) Meaningful Play, Playful Meaning, Human Kinetics Publishers (Champaign, IL), 1987.
• (With Kent L. Sandstrom) Knowing Children: Participant Observation with Minors, Sage (Newberry Park, CA), 1988.
• (Editor, with John Johnson and Harvey A. Farberman) Sociological Slices: Introductory Readings from the Interactionist Perspective, JAI Press (Greenwich, CT), 1992.
• Manufacturing Tales: Sex and Money in Contemporary Legends, University of Tennessee Press (Knoxville, TN), 1992.
• (Editor, with Karen Cook and James S. House) Sociological Perspectives on Social Psychology, Allyn and Bacon (Boston, MA), 1994.
• (Editor) A Second Chicago School?: The Development of a Postwar American Sociology, University of Chicago (Chicago, IL), 1995.
• Kitchens: The Culture of Restaurant Work, University of California (Berkeley, CA), 1996.
• Morel Tales: The Culture of Mushrooming, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 1998.
• (Editor, with Gregory W. H. Smith) Erving Goffman, Sage (Thousand Oaks, CA), 2000.
• Difficult Reputations: Collective Memories of the Evil, Inept, and Controversial, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 2001.
• Gifted Tongues: High School Debate and Adolescent Culture, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 2001.
• (With Patricia A. Turner) Whispers on the Color Line: Rumor and Race in America, University of California (Berkeley, CA), 2001.
• (With Daniel D. Martin and Kent L. Sandstrom) Symbols, Selves, and Social Life: A Symbolic Interactionist Approach, Roxbury (Los Angeles, CA), 2002.
• Gary Alan Fine and Patricia Turner, Whispers On the Color Line: Rumor and Race in America University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 2001.
• Gary Alan Fine and David Shulman, Talking Sociology, Fifth Edition. Allyn and Bacon (Boston, MA), 2003.
• Kent Sandstrom, Daniel D. Martin, and Gary Alan Fine, Symbols, Selves and Social Life: A Symbolic Interactionist Approach to Sociology and Social Psychology. Roxbury (Los Angeles, CA), In press.

References

• Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2005. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2005.