Gary Alan Fine (born May 11, 1950, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

) is an American sociologist and author.

Life and career

The son of Bernard David Fine and Bernice Estelle Tanz, Fine grew up in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of counties in New York, origin ...

and went to the

Horace Mann School , motto_translation = Great is the truth and it prevails , address = 231 West 246th Street , city = The Bronx , state = New York , zipcode = 10471 , count ...

. He studied

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...

at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest- ...

(

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ar ...

). He attended graduate school at Harvard University from 1972 to 1976 and received his PhD from

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher l ...

social psychology Social psychology is the scientific study of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people or by social norms. Social psychologists typically explain human behavior as a result of the re ...

. His dissertation advisor was the eminent small group theorist Robert F. Bales. In 1976, he became an

assistant professor Assistant Professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States and Canada. Overview This position is generally taken after earning a doctoral degree and general ...

in the sociology department at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. T ...

. At various times, he was a

visiting professor In academia, a visiting scholar, visiting researcher, visiting fellow, visiting lecturer, or visiting professor is a scholar from an institution who visits a host university to teach, lecture, or perform research on a topic for which the visitor ...

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universit ...

(1980), the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the be ...

(1985), the

University of Bremen The University of Bremen (German: ''Universität Bremen'') is a public university in Bremen, Germany, with approximately 23,500 people from 115 countries. It is one of 11 institutions which were successful in the category "Institutional Strateg ...

(1986), and the

University of Iceland The University of Iceland ( is, Háskóli Íslands ) is a public research university in Reykjavík, Iceland and the country's oldest and largest institution of higher education. Founded in 1911, it has grown steadily from a small civil servants' s ...

(1988). In 1988, he received the

American Folklore Society The American Folklore Society (AFS) is the US-based professional association for folklorists, with members from the US, Canada, and around the world, which aims to encourage research, aid in disseminating that research, promote the responsibl ...

Opie Award Opie may refer to: * Opie (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name, nickname, or surname * Acronyms OPIE: ** OPIE (Entomology) (''Office pour l'Information Eco-entomologique''), a French government organisation devoted ...

for the Best Scholarly Book in the field of Children's Folklore and Culture for his work ''With The Boys'', an

ethnographic Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject ...

study of

Little League Little League Baseball and Softball (officially, Little League Baseball Inc) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

, 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 A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societi ...

. During the term of 1994 to 1995, he was a fellow at the

Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences The Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) is an interdisciplinary research lab at Stanford University that offers a residential postdoctoral fellowship program for scientists and scholars studying "the five core social and ...

, affiliated with

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

. He continued at the University of Georgia but accepted a position at

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Chart ...

in Evanston, Illinois beginning in 1997, where in 2005 he was named John Evans Professor. In 2002, he was the President of the

Midwest Sociological Society The Midwest Sociological Society (MSS) is a "… membership organization of academic and applied sociologists as well as students of the discipline." The society was founded in 1936 and held its first annual meeting in 1937. In 2011–12 its mem ...

, and in 2005 he was President of the Society for the Study of Social Problems. He remains at Northwestern and in 2003 was a fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in the Social Sciences at

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. The university rose to significance during ...

in Sweden. In 2005 and 2006, he was a visiting scholar at the

Russell Sage Foundation The Russell Sage Foundation is an American non-profit organisation established by Margaret Olivia Sage in 1907 for “the improvement of social and living conditions in the United States.” It was named after her recently deceased husband, rai ...

in New York City. He is a former editor of

Social Psychology Quarterly ''Social Psychology Quarterly'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes theoretical and empirical papers in the field of social psychology. The editors-in-chief are Jody Clay-Warner, Dawn Robinson, and Justine Tinkler (University of Geor ...

, an official journal of the American Sociological Association. He is married to Susan Hirsig Fine and has two children.

Academic focus

Fine has written ethnographies of a number of diverse small group activities from analyses of

Dungeons and Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TSR). ...

players and

mushroom hunters Mushroom hunting, mushrooming, mushroom picking, mushroom foraging, and similar terms describe the activity of gathering mushrooms in the wild, typically for culinary use. This practice is popular throughout most of Europe, Australia, Japan, ...

to high school

policy debate Policy debate is an American form of debate competition in which teams of two usually advocate for and against a resolution that typically calls for policy change by the United States federal government. It is also referred to as cross-examinat ...

rs and restaurant workers. Fine maintains that these different groups and distinct areas connect: His work on

rumor A rumor (American English), or rumour (British English; see spelling differences; derived from Latin:rumorem - noise), is "a tall tale of explanations of events circulating from person to person and pertaining to an object, event, or issue in p ...

has made a substantial contribution to the understanding of

urban legends An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family m ...

and the transmission of rumors. In 2001, he co-authored a book with

University of California-Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The instit ...

Professor Patricia Turner on rumors in the African-American community and rumors and

held by whites about blacks in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

. He is currently researching rumors related to the September 11 attacks and terrorism. A recently published manuscript deals with the social production and communication of

scientific Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence f ...

work at the

National Weather Service The National Weather Service (NWS) is an agency of the United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weather-related products to organizations and the public for the ...

. Another area of research includes the complicated historical and social reputations of figures such as

Thorstein Veblen Thorstein Bunde Veblen (July 30, 1857 – August 3, 1929) was a Norwegian-American economist and sociologist who, during his lifetime, emerged as a well-known critic of capitalism. In his best-known book, ''The Theory of the Leisure Class'' ...

Benedict Arnold Benedict Arnold ( Brandt (1994), p. 4June 14, 1801) was an American military officer who served during the Revolutionary War. He fought with distinction for the American Continental Army and rose to the rank of major general before defecti ...

Fatty Arbuckle Roscoe Conkling "Fatty" Arbuckle (; March 24, 1887 – June 29, 1933) was an American silent film actor, comedian, director, and screenwriter. He started at the Selig Polyscope Company and eventually moved to Keystone Studios, where he worked ...

Herman Melville Herman Melville ( born Melvill; August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are ''Moby-Dick'' (1851); ''Typee'' (1846), a r ...

Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (russian: link=no, Владимир Владимирович Набоков ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Born ...

Warren Harding Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was the 29th president of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party, he was one of the most popular sitting U.S. presidents. ...

Sinclair Lewis Harry Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 – January 10, 1951) was an American writer and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States (and the first from the Americas) to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, which was ...

, and

Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that mi ...

. On August 4, 2004, several months before the 2004 Presidential Election, he set off a minor storm, especially in the political blogger community, with his

op-ed An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page", is a written prose piece, typically published by a North-American newspaper or magazine, which expresses the opinion of an author usually not affiliated with the publication's editorial board. ...

piece in ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nat ...

'' "Ire to the Chief" that argued that the commonly expressed hatreds of presidents

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

, Bill Clinton, and

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

reflected their behavior and activities in youth more than their specific policies as President. Fine is also a major figure in the study of the work of

Erving Goffman Erving Goffman (11 June 1922 – 19 November 1982) was a Canadian-born sociologist, social psychologist, and writer, considered by some "the most influential American sociologist of the twentieth century". In 2007 '' The Times Higher Edu ...

and the theory of

symbolic interactionism Symbolic interactionism is a sociological theory that develops from practical considerations and alludes to particular effects of communication and interaction in people to make images and normal implications, for deduction and correspondence w ...

. 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 Daniel Martin may refer to: People * Dan Martin (actor) (born 1951), American actor * Dan Martin (drama educator) (born 1953), American academic * Dan Martin (cyclist) (born 1986), Irish road bicycle racer * Dan Martin (footballer) (born 1986), Bri ...

, he has produced a forthcoming textbook on symbolic interactionism entitled ''Symbols, Selves, and Social Reality: A Symbolic Interactionist Approach to Sociology and Social Psychology''.

Specific 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 The terms food critic, food writer, and restaurant critic can all be used to describe a writer who analyzes food or restaurants and then publishes the results of their findings. While these terms are not strictly synonymous they are often used in ...

. Through 2015, he maintained a blog, called ''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 Eric Matthew Schlosser (born August 17, 1959) is an American journalist and author known for his investigative journalism, such as in his books '' Fast Food Nation'' (2001), ''Reefer Madness'' (2003), and '' Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, ...

's book, '' Fast Food Nation'', for

Reason magazine ''Reason'' is an American libertarian monthly magazine published by the Reason Foundation. The magazine has a circulation of around 50,000 and was named one of the 50 best magazines in 2003 and 2004 by the ''Chicago Tribune''. History ''Reas ...

.Fine, Gary Alan (2001).
"Chewing the Fat."
''Reason'', Nov. 2001.

Art

Another subject in which Fine has combined his personal and academic interests is

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

. While researching his book about

outsider art Outsider art is art made by self-taught or supposedly naïve artists with typically little or no contact with the conventions of the art worlds. In many cases, their work is discovered only after their deaths. Often, outsider art illustrates ...

''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 Henry Joseph Darger Jr. (; April 12, 1892 – April 13, 1973) was an American writer, novelist and artist who worked as a hospital custodian in Chicago, Illinois. He has become famous for his posthumously discovered 15,145-page fantasy novel m ...

, Bill Traylor,

Edgar Tolson Edgar Tolson (1904–1984) was a woodcarver from Kentucky who became a well-known folk artist. He was born in Lee City, Wolfe County, Kentucky as the fourth of eleven children and educated through the sixth grade. He worked as a carpenter and ...

, Thornton Dial,

Lonnie Holley Lonnie Bradley Holley (born February 10, 1950) sometimes known as the Sand Man, is an American artist, art educator, and musician. He is best known for his assemblages and immersive environments made of found materials. He was born the 7th of 27 c ...

, 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 The High Museum of Art (colloquially the High) is the largest museum for visual art in the Southeastern United States. Located in Atlanta, Georgia (on Peachtree Street in Midtown, the city's arts district), the High is 312,000 square feet (28, ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

. He is also currently a board member of the Intuit: Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art in Chicago.

Policy Debate

During his research for ''Gifted Tongues: High School Debate and Adolescent Culture'', he followed and observed several high school

teams in

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

. 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 '' Barkley Forum'' at

Emory University Emory University is a private research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1836 as "Emory College" by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory, Emory is the second-oldest private institution of h ...

, another major championship in the activity.

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. * (With David Shulman) ''Talking Sociology'', Fifth Edition. Allyn and Bacon (Boston, MA), 2003. * ''Everyday Genius: Self-Taught Art and the Culture of Authenticity'', University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 2004. * (With Kent Sandstrom and Daniel D. Martin) ''Symbols, Selves and Social Life: A Symbolic Interactionist Approach to Sociology and Social Psychology''. Roxbury (Los Angeles, CA), In press. * ''Players and Pawns: How Chess Builds Community and Culture'', University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 2015. * ''Talking Art: The Culture of Practice and the Practice of Culture in MFA Education'', University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 2018.

References

*Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2005. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2005. {{DEFAULTSORT:Fine, Gary Alan 1950 births American sociologists Living people University of Pennsylvania alumni University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni Northwestern University faculty University of Minnesota faculty Indiana University faculty University of Chicago faculty University of Georgia faculty Horace Mann School alumni American restaurant critics American male non-fiction writers Social Psychology Quarterly editors Harvard University alumni