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Northwestern School of Communication

Larissa Buchholz

Assistant Professor
Frances Searle Building
2240 Campus Drive
Room 2-156
Evanston, IL 60208

Area(s) of Expertise

Art and Cultural Production, Cultural Markets, Globalization, Intellectuals and Knowledge, Sociology Theory
Larissa Buchholz

Larissa Buchholz is an award-winning sociologist who works at the intersections of the sociology of art and culture, global and transnational studies, and theory. She also has interests in comparative-historical sociology, the sociology of markets, and the sociology of intellectuals/knowledge. Having earned four graduate degrees (three master’s and a Ph.D. in sociology from Columbia University), Buchholz is currently an Assistant Professor of Communication Studies and Sociology (by courtesy) at Northwestern University, a faculty fellow at the Critical Realism Network Yale University, and an editorial board member of Sociological Theory. Prior to that, she was a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows, breaking barriers as the first woman elected from her discipline.

Buchholz’s recently published book, The Global Rules of Art (Princeton University Press, 2022), examines the historical emergence of a global cultural field and how artists from formerly colonized or "peripheral" countries reach global symbolic or market recognition after centuries of exclusion and discrimination. Theoretically, the book breaks new ground by advancing a multi-scalar and multi-level global field theory to study processes of globalization and their effects on different forms of valuation and shifting inequalities across borders. Among recent reviews, the book was described as “a stunning scholarly achievement that sets a new standard for sociology,” “theoretically and empirically exceptional,” or “a reference book for now and future generations.” Buchholz has additionally published over 20 academic pieces (including peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and encyclopedia entries), which have been cited by scholars on six continents across subfields in the social sciences and humanities. Her ongoing book project, Kaleidoscopic Tastes in a Global Cultural Market (working title), expands her interest in valuation dynamics across borders by turning from the perspective of cultural mediation to cultural consumption and inequality. Drawing from several months of fieldwork in the Middle East, China and India, the project looks at art buyers and collectors in rising world economies to examine the formation of cultural preferences and elites in the interplay of national, regional, and global level influences.

Buchholz gave keynotes at Cambridge University, UK (2016), the University of Pennsylvania, USA (2018), the Max Planck Institute Cologne, Germany (2018), and at Uppsala University, Sweden (2022). Her work has garnered multiple awards, including a Fulbright Award, the Alex Inkeles Prize and Robert K. Merton Award at Columbia University, the Junior Theorist Prize of the International Sociological Association, the Junior Theorist Award of the American Sociological Association, Harvard University’s William F. Milton Fund award as well as Columbia University's outstanding recent Alumni Award. In addition to her academic work, Buchholz has engaged in consulting for cultural organizations in Chicago and around the globe.

For more information, see her personal site at larissabuchholz.soc.northwestern.edu

Education

  • Junior Fellow, Society of Fellows, Harvard University
  • PhD, Sociology, Columbia University
  • M.Phil. Sociology, Columbia University
  • M.A. Stony Brook University
  • Magistra Artium, Cultural Sciences, Leuphana University, Germany

Recent Awards and Honors

  • 2022 Faculty Honor RollNorthwestern University
  • 2020 Junior Thyssen Fellow, Institute for Advanced Study, Central European University
  • 2017 Junior Theorist Award, American Sociological Association
  • 2016 Junior Theorist Prize, International Sociological Association
  • 2016 Outstanding Recent Alumni Award, Columbia University
  • 2014 William F. Milton Fund Award, Harvard University
  • 2013 Outstanding Dissertation Award, American Sociological Association
  • 2013 Robert K. Merton Award for Best Dissertation, Department of Sociology, Columbia University

Courses

  • Global Culture? Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives
  • Creativity in Context
  • Globalization of Culture: Media, Artefacts, Identities
  • The Construction of Value in Cultural Markets
  • Media and Cultural Production Research Practicum
  • Cultural Nonprofit Organizations