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University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Bios Sociologicus: The Erving Goffman Archives

Bios Sociologicus: Erving Goffman Archives (EGA) is a web-based, open-source project hosted by the UNLV Center for Democratic Culture; Dr. Dmitri N. Shalin is editor and co-director. The EGA collects documents, biographical materials, interviews and critical studies about Dr. Erving Goffman, the 73rd president of the American Sociological Association (1922-1982). The EGA collection provides personal testimonies and documents bearing on academic life in the post WWII United States, with special attention to the plight of women in the social sciences.

Submissions from 2015 2015

My Father and Erving Made a Number of Trips to Nevada to Play Blackjack, Dan Cisin

If There Were a Nobel Prize for Sociology and/or Social Psychology, Goffman Would Deserve to Be the First One Considered, Thomas Schelling

Submissions from 2014 2014

Dmitri Shalin Interview with Angelo A. Alonzo about Erving Goffman entitled "I asked Goffman If He Had Time and He Said “No” But If I Wanted to Talk as He Ran a Couple of Errands on Telegraph Ave I Was Welcome to Come Along", Angelo A. Alonzo

Dmitri Shalin Interview with Peter Archibald about Erving Goffman entitled "“If You Are Such a Great Sociologist, Why Are You Still in Canada?” My Encounter with Erving Goffman", Peter Archibald

Dmitri Shalin Interview with Vincent Colapietry about Erving Goffman entitled "Remembering Erving Goffman", Vincent Colapietro

Goffman, Simmel, and Chicago, Horst J. Helle

Dmitri Shalin Interview with Donald Levine about Erving Goffman entitled "Remembering Erving Goffman", Donald Levine

Dmitri Shalin Interview with Laurel Richardson about Erving Goffman entitled "When I Told the Group I Was the Daughter of a Jewish Woman Who Emigrated from Russia, Goffman Said, “So That Explains Why You Are so Smart”", Laurel Richardson

Dmitri Shalin Interview with J. David Sapir about Erving Goffman entitled "Seeing the Photographs Erving said, "Do You Think That Those Pictures Say Anything about Reality? Absolutely not. . ."", J. David Sapir

Submissions from 2013 2013

Dmitri Shalin Interview with Peter Miller about Erving Goffman entitled "The Perilous Journey of the Self and the Salvation of Private Life: Reflections From Dmitri Shalin's 'Interfacing Biography, Theory and History: The Case of Erving Goffman'", Peter Miller

Erving Seemed Surprised at How Little “Power” Came with the ASA Presidency, and Noted that the Position of Secretary Carried Much More Clout, James F. Short

Dmitri Shalin Interview with Edward Tiryakian about Erving Goffman entitled "Parsons Was About 5'6" or 5'5" but When He Started to Speak, He Got to Be Six Feet Five", Edward Tiryakian

Goffman Got up and Moved to the Center of the Room and Began Doing a Mime Strip-tease, Peter Zelchenko

Submissions from 2012 2012

At the Convocation Goffman Said, “One Is Born Near a Granary and Spends the Rest of His Life Suppressing It”, Daniel Albas

A “Variable” Researcher’s Memories of Erving Goffman, Travis Hirschi

Dmitri Shalin Interview with S. Leonard Syme about Erving Goffman entitled "Erving Looked at the Room and Announced, “I See Everyone Is Observing the Rituals of Mourning”", S. Leonard Syme

Submissions from 2011 2011

When Erving Goffman was a Boy, Sherri Cavan

A Glimpse of Goffman, Lester R. Kurtz

Dmitri Shalin Interview with Dennis Wrong about Erving Goffman entitled "Bobby Adamson Said, “Pooky Is a Genius, and as Soon as He Starts Writing His Own Stuff It Will Be Recognized”", Dennis Wrong

Submissions from 2010 2010

My Father Used to Refer to Erving as “Goofy Goffman”, Eli Bay

When Erving Was an Infant My Mother Nursed Us Both So We Were Bosom Buddies, Esther Besbris

Erving Goffman in Toronto, Chicago and London, Elizabeth Bott-Spillius

Erving Came in, Kissed Me and Said, “Oh, Goldie, You Still Have a Beautiful Nose!”, Gertrude Frankelson

After High Holidays Erving Made up Excuses Rather than Admit that He Missed School Because He Was Jewish, Avron Katz

The Zen of Erving Goffman, Peter Miller

Erving Goffman and Asymmetric Anonymity, David Nasatir

Dmitri Shalin Interview with Jane Allyn Piliavin about Erving Goffman entitled "Toward the End of the Party Erving Said to My Husband, “Why Are All These Smart People Doing Such Stupid Things?”", Jane Allyn Piliavin

We Are in This Ridiculously Long Line, and Erv Says, "I Can't Believe We're Standing in Line with All These Pricks.", Mark Piliavin

Dmitri Shalin Interview with Magali Sarfatti-Larson about Erving Goffman entitled "Goffman Was One of the Most Memorable People I Have Met in the Academia Because He Was Not an Academic", Magali Sarfatti-Larson

To me, Goffman Was a Shakespearean Figure, the Fool Who Spoke the Wisdom of the Play, Marvin B. Scott

Dmitri Shalin Interview with Gino Segre about Erving Goffman entitled "As We Were Leaving the Tennis Court, Erving Told Me, “You Were Wrong. Nothing in life is casual”", Gino Segre

Erving Goffman as a Pioneer in Self-Ethnography? The “Insanity of Place” Revisited*, Dmitri N. Shalin

Goffman's Self-Ethnographies, Dmitri N. Shalin

Dmitri Shalin Interview with Sherri Cavan about Erving Goffman entitled "Remembering Goffman", Dmitri N. Shalin and Sherri Cavan

Dmitri Shalin Interview with Arlene Skolnick about Erving Goffman entitled "Remembering Erving Goffman", Arlene Skolnick

Goffman Was an Intense Perfectionist about His Writing, Putting Sheet after Sheet into the Typewriter and Then Throwing Each Away, Ann Swidler

Dmitri Shalin Interview with Roy Turner about Erving Goffman entitled "What Struck Me First about Goffman Was That He Had an Amazing Elegance in His Delivery", Roy Turner

Dmitri Shalin Interview with Ruth A. Wallace about Erving Goffman entitled "Goffman Really Was Going out of His Way to Help People Who Were Different", Ruth A. Wallace

Dmitri Shalin Interview with Audrey Wipper about Erving Goffman entitled "Goffman Was Very Original from the Beginning, He Had His Own Way of Seeing and He Stuck to It", Audrey Wipper

Dmitri Shalin Interview with Marly Zaslov about Erving Goffman entitled "The Whole Idea of Image and How You Are Perceived by Other People Was Important for the Averbachs", Marly Zaslov

Submissions from 2009 2009

When Dad Told Him about the Award, Goffman Replied, "Make Sure the Presentation Is in a Small Room So It Will Look Like a Lot of People Are There", Carl B. Backman

Erving Turned to Me and Said, "You Know, Elijah Anderson Is Really a Professional Sociologist, He Is Not a Professional Black", Harold Bershady

Erving Should Not Be Judged in Any Way and Certainly Not by Students Who Saw or Knew Very Little of Goff, Meyer Brownstone

Dmitri Shalin Interview with Sherri Cavan about Erving Goffman entitled "Goffman’s “The Insanity of Place” as an Exercise in Self-Ethnography", Sherri Cavan and Dmitri N. Shalin

Remembering Erving Goffman, Aaron Cicourel

One of Erving’s Writings Influenced Bob to Write a Basic Article on Higher Education, Adele Clark

Erving and Ira Were Counting Cards When a Couple of Biggest Men They Ever Saw Walked up Behind Them and Said, “We Don’t Want Your Play, Partner”, Walter Clark

Erving Always Behaved Like A Guttersnipe, Teasing and Mocking With His Back Against the Wall, Arlene Daniels

Goffman Was Always Ready to Explain, and He Did That without Condescension, with Patience, and with Grace, Richard Daniels

Had the New President, So I Said, "OK, Erving, I Am Sending Over a Reporter", Russell Dynes

Remembering Erving Goffman, Frederick Elkin

Goffman Turns to Me and Says, “Only a Schmuck Studies His Own Life”, Gary Alan Fine

Erving Goffman Was a Brilliantly Imaginative, Original Sociologist and a Pathmaking Ethnographer, Who Had a Deep and Lasting Influence on the Students Who He Mentored in his Distinctively Challenging Way, and on the Discipline of Sociology to Whose Development He Was Fervently Committed, Renee C. Fox

A Stranger Determined to Remain One, William Gamson

Goffman Sat on My Immediate Left at a Long, Oblong Table in a Room in the Social Science Building, Arnold J. Glass

At His Bar Mitzvah Erving Gave a Little Speech That He Wrote Himself and That He Called “Ode to Mother”, Frances Goffman Bay

Remembering Chicago Sociologists, Leo Goodman

Erving Was a Brilliant Scholar and a Mensch, Joseph Gusfield

He Was a Heck of a Nice Guy, Kind of Shy, and the Kids Liked Him, Robert Habenstein

I Became Aware That Many Students Looked up to Erving, Gerald Handel

As Goffman Was Talking about Remedial Interchanges, He Took a Glass of Water and Spilled It on Rosenberg’s Lap, Samuel Heilman

Erving Goffman's Presentation of Self as ASA President, Joan Huber

To My Surprise Goffman Called Himself a Functionalist, But His Former Students Assured Me That He Was Only Playing With Us, Rachel Kahn-Hut

In Writing These Reflections, I Realize I Should Re-read Goffman for New Insights on Contemporary Conflict Resolution Issues, Louis Kriesberg

Erving Got the Keys for His Office and Handed Over Them to Me, Saying, “Use My Office, I Can Work at Home”, Kurt Lang and Gladys Lang

Goffman Converted His Personal Neurosis or Inferiority Complex into a Very Productive and Creative Solution, Kurt Lang and Gladys Lang

Dmitri Shalin Interview with Victor Lidz about Erving Goffman entitled "Remembering Erving Goffman", Victor Lidz

Dmitri Shalin Interview with Dean MacCannell about Erving Goffman entitled "Some of Goffman’s Guardedness and Verbal Toughness Was Simply a Way of Giving Himself the Space and Time That He Needed to Do the Work That He Really Loved", Dean MacCannell

Dmitri Shalin Interview with Saul Mendlovitz about Erving Goffman entitled "Erving Was a Jew Acting Like a Canadian Acting Like a Britisher", Saul Mendlovitz

Goffman Demonstrated the Best Teaching Skills of Any Professor I Had Ever Had!, Jane Emery Prather

Dmitri Shalin Interview with Robin Room about Erving Goffman entitled "Only Someone Who Had Trouble with Sociability Would Be So Keen an Observer", Robin Room

Dmitri Shalin Interview with Jordan Scher about Erving Goffman entitled "Erving Disavowed Psychiatric Functioning at St. Elizabeth’s, and I Explored Role-Playing and the Presentation of Self in Schizophrenia", Jordan Scher

Erving Said That the Rigor and Formal Nature of Linguistics Could Add Status to the Just-Beginning Study of Social Interaction, Deborah Schiffrin

Introduction, Dmitri N. Shalin

At the End of That First Year or So I Would Say That I Became as Close to Erving as Anyone Else in the Sociology Department, Neil Smelser

The Presentation of Self Reminded Me of Dale Carnegie's Best Selling How to Win Friends and Influence People, Ralph Turner

Dmitri Shalin Interview with Jack Whalen about Erving Goffman entitled "I Read Presentation of Self, and It Was Like Nothing I Ever Read – “Oh, My God, That Is Sociology?”", Jack Whalen

Dmitri Shalin Interview with Jacqueline Wiseman about Erving Goffman entitled "Having a Genius for a Friend", Jacqueline Wiseman

Submissions from 2008 2008

Goffman Told Me, "It Is Really Hard to Do That Kind of Thing Well," and That Was About all the Advice I Ever Got from Him, Joel Best

Having Been Goffman's Student I Am Drawn to Voltaire’s Dictum, "To the Living We Owe Respect, to the Dead We Owe Only the Truth", Sherri Cavan

"Erving Needs a Pee. . . ", Robert Dingwall

Remembering Gregory Stone, David Franks

Losing Erv, I Recognized, Would Be a Severe Blow to the Department, Charles Glock

Then Maurice Janowitz Came Over and Said to Goffman, “Cut It Out, Erving”, Jeffrey Goldfarb

Goffman Was by Far the Smartest, Most Interesting, Complex, Though, at Times, Snide or Disparaging Individual I Have Ever Known, John Irwin

I found Goffman Talented, Original, Rewarding to Read, but Basically Problematic, Victor Lidz

Dmitri Shalin Interview with Gary T. Marx about Erving Goffman entitled "Marx-Shalin Exchange on the Goffman Project", Gary T. Marx and Dmitri N. Shalin

Dmitri Shalin Interview with Calvin Morrill about Erving Goffman entitled "Turns out Goffman Had Been Observing Students the Whole Time and Used the Notes He Had Taken While Observing Their Behavior", Calvin Morrill

Goffman’s Biography and the Interaction Order: A Study in Biocritical Hermeneutics, Dmitri N. Shalin

Dmitri Shalin Interview with Vladmir Shlapentokh about Erving Goffman entitled "The Pen of a Genius is Mightier Than the Writer Himself", Vladmir Shlapentokh

Dmitri Shalin Interview with Rodney Stark about Erving Goffman entitled "Goffman Was Trying to Get Away with the Descriptions of Those Fairly Sane People as He Laid Out His Notion of Mental Illness", Rodney Stark

Dmitri Shalin Interview with Eviatar Zerubavel about Erving Goffman entitled "Studying with Erving Goffman", Eviatar Zerubavel

Submissions from 2007 2007

A Small Unassuming Man Walked up to Me, Shook My Hand and Told Me, “I Really Enjoyed Your Paper”, David R. Dickens Jr.

Marvin Scott Warned Me That Goffman Did Not Like People Writing About Him, That We Should Only Write About Dead People, Andy Fontana

Goffman Turned to Me and Said With Some Surprise, “You like doing fieldwork?”, Ruth Horowitz

Encounters with Erving Goffman, Peter Manning

Dmitri Shalin Interview with Peter Manning about Erving Goffman entitled "Manning-Shalin on Goffman", Peter Manning and Dmitri N. Shalin