Eva Illouz

Eva Illouz was born in 1961 in Fez

Eva Illouz was born in Fez, Morocco, in 1961. At the age of 10 she moved with her family to France. She speaks Hebrew, French and English.

She earned a BA and an MA in Paris and an MA in communication at the Hebrew University. In 1991 she received a PhD in communications and cultural studies from the Annenberg School at the University of Pennsylvania. Her adviser was Larry Gross.

She taught at Tel Aviv University and later joined the Hebrew University, where she held the Rose Isaac Chair in Sociology. She helped found its Program for Cultural Studies. From 2012 to 2015 she was president of Bezalel, and since 2015 she has been a director of studies at EHESS in Paris.

Her research covers romantic love, consumer culture and the sociology of emotions. Her first book, Consuming the Romantic Utopia, looked at how romance became tied to consumer leisure. In Why Love Hurts she examined how choice changed love in modern life.

In 2025 the Israel Prize committee chose her for the prize in sociology. Education minister Yoav Kisch said he would not grant it, citing a 2021 petition to the International Criminal Court that she had signed. The Hebrew University then gave her a lifetime achievement award.