Gary Alan Fine is the James E. Johnson Professor of Sociology at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA. He received his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Harvard University, and has taught at the University of Minnesota and the University of Georgia, and has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. His book, Shared Fantasy: Role-Playing Games as Social Worlds was published in 1983 by the University of Chicago Press. He has also written on Little League baseball, competitive chess, mushroom collecting, high school debate, and historical reenactments.