Eva Illouz

Eva Illouz is a Franco-Israeli sociologist and essayist, and one of the most influential contemporary scholars of emotions, culture and capitalism. Born in Fez on 30 April 1961, she z to France at the age of ten. She studied sociology, communication and literature in Paris, subsequently obtaining a Master’s degree in literature from the University of Paris-Nanterre and a Master’s degree in communication from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1991, she was awarded a PhD in communication and cultural studies from the University of Pennsylvania.

Her academic career has spanned Israel, Europe and the United States. She taught at Tel Aviv University and subsequently at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where she held the Rose Isaac Chair in Sociology. She has been a visiting professor at prestigious universities such as Princeton and Northwestern and, since 2015, has been Director of Studies at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. Between 2012 and 2015, she was also the first female president of the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design.

Her research has revolutionised contemporary sociology by analysing how capitalism influences emotional life, romantic relationships and the construction of identity. Works such as *Consuming the Romantic Utopia* (1997), *Cold Intimacies* (2007) and *Why Love Hurts* (2012) have shown how emotions and the market are deeply intertwined in modern societies