Joshua Gamson received his B.A. from Swarthmore College, and
his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley,
and previously taught at Yale University. He currently teaches
Sociology of Popular Culture, Sex and Sexualities, Introduction to
Sociology, and Fieldwork in Sociology.
His research and teaching focus on the sociology of culture,
with an emphasis on contemporary Western commercial culture and
mass media; social movements, especially on cultural aspects of
contemporary movements; on participant-observation methodology and
techniques, particularly as applied in urban settings; and on the
history, theory, and sociology of sexuality.
He is the author of Claims to Fame: Celebrity in
Contemporary America (California, 1994); Freaks Talk Back:
Tabloid Talk Shows and Sexual Nonconformity (Chicago, 1998),
winner of book awards from the American Sociological Association
and the Society for Cinema Studies; and The Fabulous Sylvester:
The Legend, The Music, The Seventies in San Francisco (Henry
Holt, 2005), winner of the Stonewall Book Award from the American
Library Association. His published scholarly work also includes
studies of sex scandals (Critical Studies in Media
Communication and Social Problems), popular culture and gay
and lesbian people (Handbook of Lesbian and Gay
Studies), sexualities and qualitative research (Handbook
of Qualitative Research), the political pitfalls in the
pursuit of media visibility (Sexualities) exclusion
processes in sex/gender movements (Gender & Society),
organizational aspects of collective identity construction
(Sociological Forum), and dilemmas in identity-based
movements (Social Problems). He has also written for
magazines and newspapers such as The Nation, The
American Prospect, and Newsday. He received a
Guggenheim Fellowship in 2009.
