Deadhead Social Science

Rebecca G. Adams is professor of sociology and assistant to the dean on distance learning at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. Her publications include four books and numerous scholarly articles, and she serves on the editorial boards of Contemporary Sociology and Personal Relationships. She attended her first Dead show in 1970. Robert Sardiello is adjunct professor of sociology at Nassau Community College. He has published several scholarly pieces concerning Deadheads and is currently working toward his Ph.D. at the University of New York, Stony Brook. He attended his first Dead show in 1977.

"What goes around, comes around" collaborative research and learning, Rebecca G. Adams; music, the grammar of the Grateful Dead, Gary Shank, Eric J. Simon; Other people play the music - improvisation as social interaction, Robert Freeman; spirituality, the deadhead community - popular religion in contemporary American culture, Shan C. Sutton; "We Were Given this Dance" - music and meaning in the early unlimited devotion family, Jennifer A. Hartley; outside the show, vending at dead shows - the bizarre bazaar, Matthew Sheptoski; community reaction to deadhead subculture, Brent Paterline; identity, becoming a deadhead, Stephanie Jennings; an Eriksonian perspective on the journey through deadhead adulthood, Michelle J. David; self concept and ego-extension among Grateful Dead fans, Alan R. Lehman; deadheads and dichotomies - mediated and negotiated readings, Jeremy Ritzer; conclusion - studying deadhead subculture, Robert Sardiello.