Faculty Books
Gary Alan Fine
Professor
Director of Graduate Student Affairs
Director of Ethnography Workshop
1810 Chicago Avenue, Room 221
Phone: (847) 491-3495
g-fine@northwestern.edu
Office Hours: By appointment only
Areas of Interest
Social Psychology
Cultural Sociology
Qualitative Methodology
Biography
Gary Alan Fine received his Ph. D. in Social Psychology from Harvard University and has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences.
Gary's current research has four distinct streams. He is interested in understanding difficult reputations and problematic collective memories of figures such as Joseph McCarthy, Charles Lindbergh, Warren Harding, and Benedict Arnold. This research was most recently published in Sticky Reputations: The Politics of Collective Memory in Midcentury America (2012). His current research involves shifting reputations and political positions of Southern segregationist politics.
As an ethnographer he is currently completing a book on the worlds of competitive chess, examining the development of status systems and reputation markets. He is also beginning a project to examine the field of public relations, particularly as involving the management of celebrity reputation.
His third stream of research involves the interpretation of rumor and contemporary legend, particularly political and economic rumor. Fine is the author of The Global Grapevine: Why Rumors of Terrorism. Immigration and Trade Matter (2010).
Finally he writes on microsociological theory, focusing on small group culture, and has recently published Tiny Publics: A Theory of Group Culture and Action (2012).
Collaboration with Graduate Students:
I am delighted to work with students on my research on historical reputations. My research focuses on negative or difficult reputations, and at the moment my attention deals with the reputations involved in contentious politics and also on images of sedition in the United States. This research is such that students can work jointly on these projects, and the research has been quite successful in terms of publication placement (AJS, Social Problems, Poetics, Sociological Quarterly, Sociological Forum, and Social Forces)...
Courses Taught
SOCIOL 476: Special Topics: Collective Memory Syllabus
SOCIOL 476: Special Topics: Microsociology Syllabus
Books
Sticky Reputations: The Politics of Collective Memory in Midcentury America
Routledge, 2012
Authors of the Storm: Meteorology and the Culture of Prediction
Chicago Press, 2010
Everyday Genius: Self-Taught
Chicago Press, 2004
Whispers on the Color Line: Rumor and Race in America
(with Patricia Turner), Chicago Press, 2004
Gifted Tongues: High School Debate and Adolescent Culture
Princeton Press, 2001
Morel Tales: The Culture of Mushrooming
Harvard Press, 1998
Kitchens: The Culture of Restaurant Work
California Press, 1996
Publications
The Sociology of the Local: Action and its Publics
Sociological Theory, 2010
DUST: A Study in Sociological Miniaturism
With Tim Hallett; Social Psychology, 2008
The Chaining of Social Problems: Solutions and Unintended Consequences in the Age of Betrayal
Social Problems, 2006
Tiny Publics: Small Groups and Civil Society
With Brooke Harrington; Sciological Theory, 2004
Opening the "Black" Box: Small Groups and Twenty-First-Century Sociology
With Brooke Harrington; Social Psychology, 2000
William Henry Exum Award
The intent of this prize is to honor the memory of William Henry Exum, a member of the Department of Sociology and the African American Studies Department, who died in 1986 at the age of 37. Exum was concerned with the quality of writing and research analysis in student papers. He was also interested in racial problems facing minority youths in higher education. This award was established as a means of continuing his goals of breaking barriers for all minorities.
The award submission deadline is April 27, 2012. All interested students should submit a 15-20 page paper, typed and double-spaced, on a topic dealing with race and ethnicity. Students are not limited to a sociological approach in preparing their submissions, nor is the award limited to sociology or social science majors.
The paper should include a cover sheet with the student's name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, year in school, and major.
Three copies of the essay must be submitted by the announced deadline to the Exum Award - Department of Sociology, 1810 Chicago Ave., Evanston Campus or one copy by email to sociol@northwestern.edu.
This award is open to all undergraduate students from all disciplines.
Upcoming Events
COLLOQUIUM: Myra Marx Ferree, Sociology, University of WI-Madison
May 17, 2012 • 12:30 PM - 2:00 PM
Culture and Society Workshop
May 17, 2012 • 3:30 PM - 5:30 PM
