Melvin Pollner papers, circa 1967-2007

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Summary

Creators:
Pollner, Melvin
Abstract:
Melvin Pollner was a UCLA Professor of Sociology for nearly 40 years and a leading practitioner of ethnomethodology, one of the department's signature specialties. The collection consists of field notes, research files of ethnomethodology papers and notes, Pollner's drafts and reprints, his Mundane Reasoning dissertation files, Sociology course materials and audio tapes from traffic court studies.
Extent:
15 linear feet (Fourteen record cartons, two document boxes and one half size document box)
Language:
Materials are in English.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Melvin Pollner papers (Collection 2184). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

Background

Scope and content:

The collection includes field notes, research files of ethnomethodology papers and notes, Pollner's drafts and reprints, his Mundane Reasoning dissertation files, Sociology course materials and audio tapes from traffic court studies.

Biographical / historical:

Melvin Pollner was born on October 13, 1940, in the Bronx neighborhood of New York City. He attended the Bronx High School of Science and earned a bachelor's degree in sociology from the City College of New York. He went on to earn a master's degree in sociology from UC Berkeley and a PhD in sociology from UC Santa Barbara. He joined the UCLA Department of Sociology in 1968 where he taught for nearly 40 years.

In the early 1980s, as part of the reorganization of the Department's graduate program, faculty organized themselves into areas of common interest. One of these areas focused on ethnomethodological, phenomenological and observational sociologies (EPOS) and included the following professors as affiliated faculty: Melvin Pollner, Harold Garfinkel, Robert Emerson, Jack Katz and Emanuel Schegloff. Pollner taught Sociology 271, one of the introductory courses in this area that grappled with fundamental ideas and concerns which animate ethnomethodological and phenomenological investigations. Pollner's course featured guest presentations by the aforementioned faculty and included topics such as "The world of everyday life and the problem of rationality," "Rules, norms and tacit knowledge" and "Speaking and discourse."

Professor Pollner's primary research interests were the sociology of mental illness; self and identity; ethnomethodology; and toward the end of his career, economic sociology. His work in these areas included studies of psychiatric emergency teams, the construction of reality in families, making and managing meaning in traffic court, the impact of religious beliefs on psychological well-being, and narrative practices in Alcoholics Anonymous.

UCLA Department of Sociology colleague and longtime collaborator, Professor Emeritus Robert Emerson described Pollner as deeply committed to sociology and specifically to ethnomethodology. Emerson remembers that Pollner described ethnomethodology as follows: "The study of the practices used to craft whatever participants in particular settings recognize as intelligible, meaningful and real." According to Emerson, this meant "understanding all social matters -- gender and social class, reality and truth -- not as fixed objects or facts, but as meanings people create and sustain in interaction with one another."

Melvin Pollner died at the UCLA Medical Center on November 2, 2007. The Melvin Pollner Prize in Ethnomethodology was created in 2009 and awarded every other year beginning in 2010 to the author of an article, chapter or book that develops original work resonant with Pollner's interests in topics such as mundane reason, reality disjunctures, radical reflexivity and the connections and contributions of ethnomethodology to other types of sociology.

Acquisition information:
Judy A. Pollner, 2008.
Processing information:

Processed by Kelly Besser with assistance from Kamarin Takahara, 2013; final revisions made by Angel Diaz, 2017.

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Arrangement:

The collection has been arranged in the following series:

  • 1. Field notes.
  • 2. Research files.
  • 3. Drafts.
  • 4. Reprints.
  • 5. Academic course materials.
  • 6. Open reel audio tapes.

Physical / technical requirements:

CONTAINS UNPROCESSED AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS: Audiovisual materials are not currently available for access and will require further processing and assessment. If you have questions about this material please email spec-coll@library.ucla.edu.

Physical location:
Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.

Terms of access:

Property rights to the objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Melvin Pollner papers (Collection 2184). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

Location of this collection:
A1713 Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575, US
Contact:
(310) 825-4988
AskLSC@library.ucla.edu
Website