Joshua Gamson (born November 16, 1962) is an American scholar and author. A graduate of Swarthmore College and the University of California, Berkeley,[1] he served on the faculty of Yale University[2] before becoming a professor of sociology at the University of San Francisco. His work has appeared in The Nation, The American Prospect, Newsday, Gender & Society, the Journal of the History of Sexuality, and Sociological Inquiry.[1] He is the son of sociologists William and Zelda F. Gamson.[3]
Gamson received the 2006 Stonewall Book Award for nonfiction for The Fabulous Sylvester,[4] his biography of disco singer and activist Sylvester, which was also shortlisted for the 2005 Lambda Literary Awards.[5] In a mostly positive review for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau lamented the gaps in Gamson's knowledge of music history, but praised his "details and insights" into Sylvester's life.[6] Kirkus Reviews called the book "worshipful, occasionally overenthusiastic, yet engaging and sometimes surprisingly insightful."[7]
He was a 2009 Guggenheim Fellow[8] and received a Placek Award from the American Psychological Association in 1995.[9]