Profile
Biography
- PhD, Sociology, University of Cambridge (2020)
- MA, Sociology and Anthropology, Tel Aviv University (2015, Magna Cum Laude)
- BA, Sociology and Anthropology, Tel Aviv University (2012)
Eliran is a Lecturer in Sociology in the department. Before joining in January 2022, he was a researcher at the University of Cambridge where he also completed his PhD in Sociology. His research and teaching interests include social theory, cultural sociology, and the sociology of intellectual interventions. Eliran is also a translator for the philosophy series of Resling publishing, and his translations include works by Terry Eagleton, Slavoj Zizek, and Alain Badiou. Additionally, Eliran is a regular reviewer for the International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, among other journals.
Research
Overview
Research interests
- Social Theory
- Cultural Sociology
- Sociology of Intellectual Interventions
His research mainly intersects knowledge production and consumption. This includes studies on public intellectuals, the digital public sphere, and the new modes of transmitting and performing ideas.
Eliran’s current research focuses on the transformation of intellectual authority. Against the context of the Covid pandemic and climate change, this research examines how scientists and intellectuals deal with the public challenging of their authority. Amidst the decline of critical theory and the rise of conspiracy theory, it attempts to answer the burning question of what can knowledge makers do to save notions of science and truth and restore public trust in expertise?
Publications
Selected publications
Books
2025 How Slavoj Became Žižek: The Digital Making of a Public Intellectual, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
2022 Thinking the Infinite: From Genesis to Set Theory, Tel Aviv: Resling, in press (Hebrew).
2021 Multiplitism: Set Theory and Sociology, London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Peer-reviewed articles
2021 ‘“The Fool” Revisited: The Making of Žižek as Sacrificial Public Intellectual’ (with Patrick Baert), Cultural Sociology 15(4): 539-557, DOI: 10.1177/17499755211007243.
2021 ‘Communal Dimensions of the Arab Spring: State and Non-state Logics in Current Middle East Politics’ (with Shaul Mishal), Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies 44(2): 43-65, DOI: 10.1353/jsa.2021.0002.
2020 ‘“If at First You don’t Succeed”: Why Žižek Failed in France but Succeeded in England’, British Journal of Sociology 72(2): 412-425, DOI: 10.1111/1468-4446.12797.
