Viviana A.

Rotman Zelizer, is a sociologist and the Lloyd Cotsen 50 Professor of

Sociology at Princeton University. She is a prominent economic sociologist who focuses on
the attribution of cultural and moral meaning to the economy. A constant theme in her work
is economic valuation of the sacred, as found in such contexts as life insurance settlements
and economic transactions between sexual intimates. In 2006 she was elected to the PEN
American Center and in 2007 she was elected to the American Academy of Arts &
Sciences.

Contents [hide]
1 Early life and career
2 Contributions
3 Major works
4 References
5 External links
Early life and career[edit]
Viviana Zelizer (born January 19, 1946) was the daughter of S. Julio Rotman and Rosita
Weill de Rotman, and raised in Argentina,[1] where she attend University of Buenos Aires
and studied law for two years.[2] She immigrated to the United States in 1967[1] when she
married her husband, Rabbi Gerald L. Zelizer, currently the rabbi of Congregation Neve
Shalom in Metuchen, New Jersey.[3]

She attend Rutgers University where she graduated, Phi Beta Kappa, with a B.A. in 1971.
She went on to graduate school in sociology at Columbia University where she received an
M.Phil and an M.A. in 1974. In 1977, Zelizer received a Ph.D. in sociology. Zelizer
identifies four scholars at Columbia that influenced her intellectual career: Sigmund
Diamond, Bernard Barber, David Rothman, and Robert K. Merton.[4]

She then joined the Department of Sociology at Rutgers University from 1976-1978. In
1976, Zelizer took an assistant professorship at Barnard College and Graduate Faculty of
Columbia University, and advanced to Full Professor in 1985. She then joined the
sociology faculty at Columbia University as a Full Professor, where she chaired the

Department of Sociology from 1992-1996. She was named the Lloyd Cotsen 50 Professor
of Sociology in 2002.[5]

From 1987 to 1988 she was a visiting scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation where she met
another visiting scholar, notable sociologist Charles Tilly. While at Princeton she interacted
with influential colleagues Paul DiMaggio and Alejandro Portes, as well as Michael Katz,
then at the University of Pennsylvania.[4]

In 1996-1997, Zelizer was a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellow and a
National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study.

In 2001, she was the elected the first chair of the newly created Economic Sociology
section of the American Sociological Association and in 2003 the Economic Sociology
section named its annual book prize the Viviana A. Zelizer Distinguished Book Award. In
2001 she was also elected a member of the Council of the section on
Comparative/Historical Sociology of the ASA.

Zelizer's son, Julian Zelizer, joined Princeton's Department of History Public Affairs in
2007, becoming "what is believed to be the first mother-son professorial team in
Princetons history."[6]

Contributions[edit]
1985 C.W. Mills Award, Society for the Study of Social Problems, for Pricing the Priceless
Child: The Changing Social Value of Children.

1996 Culture Section Book Award, American Sociological Association, for The Social
Meaning of Money.

Major works[edit]
Economic Lives: How Culture Shapes the Economy, Princeton University Press. (2010).
ISBN 978-0-691-13936-4

The Purchase of Intimacy, Princeton University Press. (2005). ISBN 0-691-12408-6

The Social Meaning of Money: Pin Money, Paychecks, Poor Relief, and Other Currencies,
Basic Books. (1994). ISBN 0-465-07891-5
Pricing the Priceless Child: The Changing Social Value of Children, Princeton University
Press. (1985). ISBN 0-691-03459-1
Morals and Markets: The Development of Life Insurance in the United States, Columbia
University Press. (1979). ISBN 0-231-04570-0
References[edit]
^ Jump up to: a b Highbeam.com
Jump up ^ Gold, Natalie. "Review: Economic Lives: How Culture Shapes the Economy".
Times Higher Education. Retrieved 19 July 2014.
Jump up ^ The New York Times
^ Jump up to: a b Zelizer, Viviana (2010). Economic Lives: How Culture Shapes the
Economy. Princeton University Press. Retrieved 19 July 2014.
Jump up ^ Princeton.edu
Jump up ^ Njjewishnews.com