Eliran Bar-El
Lecturer

Profile

Biography

I was born in Tel Aviv to migrant parents from Iraq and the USSR. Growing up between different classes, cultures, and languages, in a conflicted political context, I was drawn to ask social questions and understand what structures society and individuals. At 19, I refused to complete the mandatory military service and made a deal with parents to enrol in university instead. As I loved traveling, is space and thought, sociology was the obvious choice.

I studied for my BA and MA in sociology and anthropology at Tel Aviv University, where I also worked as graduate teaching assistant and research assistant to two influential professors, who later became mentors. My Masters thesis explored different framings of the Arab Spring of 2011, a topic which also framed my broader interest in knowledge production and consumption.

I moved to the UK in 2015 to start my PhD in sociology at the University of Cambridge. My PhD project investigated the rise to global prominence of public intellectual Slavoj Zizek. It contributed to my research and teaching expertise in social theory, cultural sociology, and the sociology of intellectual interventions. 

My passion for ideas and writing brought me to translate three philosophical works by Terry Eagleton, Slavoj Zizek, and Alain Badiou, for the philosophy series of Resling publishing. 

I joined the University of York in 2022 as lecturer in sociology.

Departmental roles

• BA Sociology programmes portfolio lead, MA Global Culture & Society programme lead, Ethics Committee Member.

University Roles

• Faculty Ethics Committee member

Research

Overview

My research mainly intersects sociology, philosophy and psychoanalysis to investigate knowledge production and consumption. This includes studies on public intellectuals, the digital public sphere, and the new modes of transmitting and performing ideas.

Current projects

My 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, University of Chicago Press. PURE: 
• 2022 Thinking the Infinite: From Genesis to Set Theory, Resling (Hebrew). PURE: https://pure.york.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/thinking-the-infinite-from-genesis-to-set-theory/
• 2021 Multiplitism: Set Theory and Sociology, Palgrave Macmillan. 

Chapters

• 2025 Slavoj Žižek and Jordan Peterson as Celebrity-Icons, in Dramatic Intellectuals, edited by Javier Perez-Jara and Nicolas Rudas. Palgrave Macmillan (Cultural Sociology Series).

Articles

• 2026 Enjoyment and War: A Socio-analytic Approach to Identity Formation in Israel, Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society.
• 2022 ‘The (Voided) Origin of Social Relations’, Philosophy Today 66(3): 507-527
• 2021 ‘“The Fool” Revisited: The Making of Žižek as Sacrificial Public Intellectual’ (with Patrick Baert), Cultural Sociology 15(4): 539-557
• 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
• 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

Teaching

Overview

I enjoy teaching undergraduate students on various modules related to introductory social theory, culture, globalisation, digital media, power, change, and qualitative methods.

I teach postgraduate modules on topics such as advanced social theory and theories of culture, globalisation, digital media, power, and change. 

External Activity

Overview

I am a regular reviewer for academic and trade book publishers, as well as sociology and related journals. 

Editorial duties

I am an Editorial Board Member of the International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society.

Invited talks and conferences

• 2025 Dramatic Intellectuals chapter presentation for the Palgrave Cultural Sociology Series in a special seminar at Gothenburg University's Department of Sociology and Work Science, online, Sweden, 24 January.

Media coverage

• 2026 Interview: Zizek’s Pop Influence, Il Post, 2 April (Italian).