David A. Snow
A man’s epic voyage through sickness, treatment, and a global health crisis
An odyssey is not just a journey; it is a quest through perilous roadblocks and an attempt to reach an improbable desired destination. One of the human experiences that most closely embodies this type of journey is the battle with cancer and other sickness. It is full of uncomfortable uncertainties and unforeseen challenges, all for the hope of a potential cure or remission. Dr. David Snow’s eight-year odyssey is no exception. He’s lived with three different intersecting cancers, the negative side effects of a clinical trial, and an extended stint with COVID, all during the height of the pandemic that sent the world into isolation and anxiety.
Drawing on his experience as a patient, sociologist, and researcher, Snow guides readers through the medical, social, and personal experiences and feelings that accompanied him on his journey. Through Dr. Snow’s experience at the ominous junction of COVID and cancer, we’re given a window into what it means to live with the disease that’s impacted so many. Whether you're recently diagnosed with cancer, currently receiving treatment, a survivor, a treatment provider, or have a loved one navigating their own cancer odyssey, the pages of A Cancer Odyssey hold a story you can identify with in every moment, whether you’re feeling helpless or hopeful. Dr. Snow’s robust story reminds us all to be an active participant in every journey we take, rather than just along for the ride, regardless of the probability of reaching our destination.
David A. Snow is a distinguished professor emeritus in sociology at the University of California, Irvine. Before joining UCI in 2001, he taught at Southern Methodist University (1975–76), the University of Texas, Austin (1976–1987), and the University of Arizona (1987–2001), where he was head of the Department of Sociology for almost a decade. He earned a BA from Ohio University, a MA in urban studies from the University of Akron, and his PhD in sociology from UCLA.
His teaching and research have concentrated on collective behavior and social movements; socioeconomic marginality with an emphasis on homelessness; social psychology with a focus on framing processes, conversion, and identity; religion and the persistence of belief; and ethnographic field methods. He is the author or co-author of numerous articles and chapters on these topics, and of twelve academic books, including the award-winning Down on Their Luck: A Study of Homeless Street People (with L. Anderson).
Dr. Snow is past president of the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction and the Pacific Sociological Association, and vice president of the American Sociological Association. He was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford, and a recipient of numerous scholarly awards, including the American Sociological Association’s 2025 W.E.B. Du Bois Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award, the association’s highest honor.
He is a veteran who was drafted into the US Army in the late 1960s and was employed afterward for a year as a juvenile parole officer in Cleveland prior to initiating his graduate studies. He was married for thirty-seven years to his late wife, Judy, who succumbed to a long battle with cancer, and has been with his current partner and wife, Roberta, for the past twenty years. He has three children and four grandchildren. In addition to relishing the time he spends with them, he enjoys reading widely, cooking, particularly French and Italian cuisine, lap swimming, walking, listening to music of all kinds, and traveling and hanging out with Roberta and family.
