Kerry Ferris

Kerry Ferris is Associate Professor of Sociology at Northern Illinois University, where she teaches introduction to sociology, qualitative methods, mass media and popular culture, and sociology of food. She uses ethnographic methods and a symbolic interactionist approach to study celebrity as a system of social power. Her past studies have included analyses of fan-celebrity relations, celebrity sightings, celebrity stalking, red-carpet celebrity interviews, the work lives of professional...See more

Kerry Ferris is Associate Professor of Sociology at Northern Illinois University, where she teaches introduction to sociology, qualitative methods, mass media and popular culture, and sociology of food. She uses ethnographic methods and a symbolic interactionist approach to study celebrity as a system of social power. Her past studies have included analyses of fan-celebrity relations, celebrity sightings, celebrity stalking, red-carpet celebrity interviews, the work lives of professional celebrity impersonators, and the experiences of local celebrities. Her current project examines dead celebrities and their fans. Her work has been published in Symbolic Interaction , Journal of Contemporary Ethnography , The Journal of Popular Culture , and Text & Performance Quarterly . She is the coauthor, with Scott R. Harris, of Stargazing: Celebrity, Fame, and Social Interaction . See less