Deadhead Social Science

Rebecca G. Adams, PhD, Professor of Sociology and gerontologist in the School of Health and Social Sciences at University North Carolina Greensboro, has published 5 books and more than 70 scholarly articles and chapters, including more than 15 on Deadheads. She has taught about Deadheads on tour (1989), on campus, (2000s), and online (2019); presented at the SWPACA Grateful Dead Caucus, at other professional meetings, and to student audiences; written popular press articles about Deadheads, published a fictional piece situated on Dead tour, conducted audience research for Grateful Dead Productions, and narrated Deadheads an American Subculture (1990). She attended her first Dead show in 1970. Robert Sardiello, MA, is adjunct professor of sociology at Nassau Community College and has published several scholarly pieces concerning Deadheads. He attended his first Dead show in 1977.

This book is a must read for those with a passion for teaching, for those who are truly engaged in their research and, perhaps most importantly, for those who can conceive of research and teaching as one in the same enterprise.

• chapter 1 Part I: Introductionchapter 2 "What Goes Around Comes Around": Collaborative Research and Learningchapter 3 Part II: Musicchapter 4 The Grammar of the Grateful Deadchapter 5 Other People Play the Music: Improvisation as Social Interactionchapter 6 Part III: Spiritualitychapter 7 The Deadhead Community: Popular Religion in Contemporary American Culturechapter 8 "We Were Given this Dance": Music and Meaning in the Early Unlimited Devotional Familychapter 9 Part IV: Outside the Showchapter 10 Vending at Dead Shows: The Bizarre Bazaarchapter 11 Community Reaction to Deadhead Subculturechapter 12 Part V: Identitychapter 13 Becoming a Deadheadchapter 14 An Eriksonian Perspective on the Journey Through Deadhead Adulthoodchapter 15 Self-Concept and Ego Extension Among Grateful Dead Fanschapter 16 Deadheads and Dichotomies: Mediated and Negotiated Readingschapter 17 Part VI: Conclusionchapter 18 Studying Deadhead Subculture