Here, we hope to build an annotated bibliographic archive of scholarly work related to Phish and Phish.net. Already, a number of pieces have been published in academic journals and edited monographs, doctoral dissertations, and Master’s thesis. If you’ve written anything that even might be fitting, either published or shareable, please email us a link and/or copy so that we can make mention of it here.

  • “Phish Fanhood: Phish.net as a Distinct Virtual Fan Community With Offline Significance”, by Patrick Mallon, 2014. In New Errands, Fall (2:1), pp.47-55. (online, discussion) – “Phish.net distinguishes itself as an intricate, distinguished Internet community… [that] values the exchange of ideas.”
  • Understanding ‘It’: Affective Authenticity, Space, and the Phish Scene, by Elizabeth Anne Yeager, 2011. Doctoral dissertation, American Studies, University of Kansas. (online)
  • “When we’re finished with it, they can have it”: Jamband Tape-Trading Culture, by Mark L. Whitman, 2005. Master’s thesis, University of Chicago. (online)
  • Phish-Heads: Modern Society, Youth, and Identity, by Michael Wesch, 1997. Senior Honors Thesis. (online)
  • “Consumption and Community: The Subcultural Contexts of Disparate Marijuana Practices in Jam Band and Hip-Hop Scenes” by Mike Pawson and Brian C. Kelly, 2014. In Deviant Behavior (35), pp. 347-363. (online)
  • “Why we argue about virtual community: a case study of the Phish.net fan community”, by Nessim Watson, 1997. Chapter 5 in Virtual Culture: Identity and Communication in Cybersociety, edited by Steve Jones (buy, read)
  • “A Phan on Phish: Live Improvised Music in Five Performative Commitments”, by Jnan A. Blau, 2010. In Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, August (10), pp. 307-319. (online)
  • Gone “phishin”: An Ethnographic Study on the Jam Band Phish (1983-2004) and the Phish Head Community that Formed Around the Music, by C. B. Asmussen, 2006. Doctoral dissertation, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.
  • Phollowing Phish: A Participant Observation of a Jam Band Community, by P. Kelso, 2006. Doctoral dissertation, Sociology, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
  • Media framing as brand positioning: Analysis of coverage linking Phish to the Grateful Dead, by J. McClain, 2011. Doctoral dissertation, Temple University.
  • “More than ‘Just’ Music: Four Performative Topoi, the Phish Phenomenon, and the Power of Music in/and Performance”, by Jnan Blau, 2009. In Transcultural Music Review = Revista Transcultural de Música, no. 13. (abstract, article)
  • “The Trick was to Surrender to the Flow”: Phish, the Phish Phenomenon, and Improvisational Performance Across Cultural and Communicative Contexts, by Jnan A. Blau, 2007. Doctoral dissertation, Speech Communication, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. (online)
  • “Analyzing Non-Strophic Forms through the Facets Model: The Early Compositional Style and Technique of Trey Anastasio and Phish,” by William Mandelbaum. 2021. 2021. Honors Scholar Theses, at University of Connecticut. 810. (online)
  • “Improvisation and Reciprocity: An Analysis of the Jam Band Community and Its Unique Business Model” by Casey Lowdermilk. (online)
  • “Impact of Lydian Mode on Group Improvisation in Phish’s ‘Reba'” by Daniel Martchek, 4/23/18 Senior Research Project (pdf)