Eviatar Zerubavel (born 1948) is professor of

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...

, a specialist in the sociology of cognition and everyday life, including topics such as time, boundaries, and categorization.

Biography

Zerubavel is a grandson of Ya'akov Zerubavel. Born in

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

in 1948 to parents in diplomatic service, he spent much of his childhood abroad. He studied first at the

University of Tel Aviv Tel Aviv University (TAU) ( he, אוּנִיבֶרְסִיטַת תֵּל אָבִיב, ''Universitat Tel Aviv'') is a public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Loc ...

and then received his Ph.D. in sociology from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest- ...

in 1976, where he studied under

Erving Goffman Erving Goffman (11 June 1922 – 19 November 1982) was a Canadian-born sociologist, social psychologist, and writer, considered by some "the most influential American sociologist of the twentieth century". In 2007 '' The Times Higher Ed ...

. After teaching at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and the

State University of New York at Stony Brook Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public research university in Stony Brook, New York. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is one of the State University of New York system' ...

, he has spent the bulk of his career at

. In 2003 he was awarded a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the art ...

, and in 2007 he was recognized as a Board of Governors and Distinguished Professor of Sociology. Zerubavel's first notable contributions were in the study of

time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...

, particularly the sociology and

standardization Standardization or standardisation is the process of implementing and developing technical standards based on the consensus of different parties that include firms, users, interest groups, standards organizations and governments. Standardizatio ...

of time. His books in this area were ''Patterns of Time in Hospital Life'' (1979); ''Hidden Rhythms'' (1981); ''The Seven Day Circle'' (1985); and ''Time Maps'' (2003). Later he turned his attention to what he has termed cognitive sociology, pointing out how much society rather than human nature shapes our mental lives, and how much the commonalities that mark out social groups involve shared patterns of thinking. His work in this vein includes ''The Fine Line'' (1991); ''Terra Cognita'' (1992); ''Social Mindscapes'' (1997); ''The Elephant in the Room'' (2006); and ''Ancestors and Relatives'' (2011). His newest book is (2018) ''Taken for Granted: The Remarkable Power of the Unremarkable''. Princeton University Press. . Zerubavel served for many years as director of the graduate program in Sociology at Rutgers University and mentor to many

graduate students Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelor's) degree. The organization and str ...

. He became very interested in academic work habits and in

time management Time management is the process of planning and exercising conscious control of time spent on specific activities, especially to increase effectiveness, efficiency, and productivity. It involves of various demands upon a person relating to wo ...

in writing. His book ''The Clockwork Muse'' (1999) gives practical advice to writers across disciplines, and in particular advice on time management to those finishing books and

dissertations A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: ...

. His own writing is notable for its use of multiple examples from everyday life, an approach which one of his students, Wayne Brekhus, has called "Zerubavelian" sociology.(2019) "Times of Sociology: Eviatar Zerubavel in Conversation with Lorenzo Sabetta," ''Sociologica,'' August 2019, vol. 13 no. 2, 55-74, doi: 10.6092/issn.1971-8853/9747 He is married to Yael Zerubavel, a scholar of Israeli history who also teaches at Rutgers University.

References

External links

Zerubavel's website at Rutgers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zerubavel, Eviatar 1948 births Living people Rutgers University faculty American sociologists Israeli Jews Israeli sociologists Jewish sociologists