The Erving Goffman Archives

The Erving Goffman Archives (EGA)

Présentation parThe Erving Goffman Archives 

  (EGA) collects documents, biographical materials, and critical studies about Dr. Erving Goffman, the 73d president of the American Sociological Association (1922-1982).  EGA provides personal testimonies and documents bearing on academic life in the post WWII Untied States, with special attention to the plight of women in the social sciences.  This web-based, open-source project serves as a clearing house for those interested in the dramaturgical perspective in sociology and biographical methods of research. Postings on the EGA web site are divided into several overlapping sections: “Documents and Papers,” “Goffman's Publications,” “Goffman in the News,” “Biographical Materials,” “Critical Assessments,” and “Comments and Dialogues.” The biographical section contains previously published materials, as well as new memoirs and conversations about Erving Goffman.  The theoretical groundwork for this undertaking is laid out in an article “Signing in the Flesh: Notes on Pragmatist Hermeneutics.” Preliminary results were summed up in a paper presented at the 2008 ASA meeting in Boston, “Goffman’s Biography and the Interaction Order:  A Study in Biocritical Hermeneutics,” and a paper read at the 2010 ASA meeting in Atlanta, “Goffman’s Self-Ethnographies.”  Symbolic Interaction published a special issue on Erving Goffman and the Goffman Archives, and UNLV Gaming Research & Review brought out a collection of essays on Goffman, Gambling, and Risk Society.  The full index of biographical materials gathered for this project and headlined by the authors can be found on the following page, http://www.unlv.edu/centers/cdclv/archives/publications/ega2.html.  When you cite EGA materials, please use the following reference:  Bios Sociologicus: The Erving Goffman Archives, Dmitri N. Shalin, ed. (UNLV: CDC Publications, 2007-2016).