Viviana Zelizer of Princeton University Wins Two Major Awards From the American Sociological Association

Viviana Zelizer, the Lloyd Cotsen ’50 Professor of Sociology at Princeton University in New Jersey, has been selected to receive the W.E.B. Du Bois Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award, the highest honor bestowed by the American Sociological Association. She will also receive the Distinguished Career Award for the Practice of Sociology. Dr. Zelizer will be honored at the association’s annual convention in Philadelphia in August.

“Considered by many one of the greatest and internationally impactful living sociologists, Professor Zelizer has, over a career spanning more than four decades, made field-defining and generative contributions to various areas, including economic sociology, the sociology of childhood, the sociology of intimacy, and perhaps most fundamentally, the sociology of money,” the prize committee wrote. “In all cases, Zelizer’s work constituted veritable intellectual revolutions, generating whole lines of scholarship where there were virtually none.

“As a result, contemporary economic sociology has taken a decided ‘Zelizerian’ turn, with core concepts and methodological and analytic approaches in the field either traceable directly to Zelizer’s work or the scores of students and acolytes whose work she has influenced and profoundly shaped,” the citation said. “In this respect, Zelizer’s tremendous impact has been realized as much by her tireless mentorship of numerous women and scholars of color, leading to the wholesale transformation of both the face and the thematic orientations of various fields central to contemporary sociology.”

“When I received the news about the twin awards my first thought was that this must be a mistake!” Dr. Zelizer said. “After that, I felt immensely grateful (and am still awed) that my peers recognized so generously my contributions.”

Dr. Zelizer taught at Rutgers University, Columbia University, and Barnard College before joining the Princeton faculty in 1988. She is the co-editor of Money Talks: Explaining How Money Really Works (Princeton University Press, 2017).

A native of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Zelizer emigrated to the United States and received a bachelor’s degree at Rutgers University in 1971. She earned two master’s degrees in sociology and a Ph.D. in sociology from Columbia University.