Peter Levin

Peter Levin, Assistant Professor of Sociology, joined the Barnard faculty in January 2004.

Professor Peter Levin's main field of study is economic sociology, with a focus on work and gender identities. He has taught such courses as "Institutions and Organizational Analysis," "Masculinity: A Sociological Perspective," and "Sociology of U.S. Economic Life."

Professor Levin's recent research includes an ethnographic comparison of futures traders in two different institutional contexts: face-to-face or "open outcry" trading and screen-based electronic trading. He examines the institutional changes generated in futures markets by the shift from face-to-face interaction to trading via electronic screens. Central questions concern the ways in which information, identities (i.e., masculinity) and discretion are reconfigured when such fundamental technological changes take place.

He is also investigating the ways in which value is made in secondary markets, through an investigation of appraisers of fine arts. He studies the processes by which communities of expert appraisers and specialists transform cultural value into price.

Professor Levin's article Information, Prices, and Sensemaking in Financial Futures Trading received the Top Accepted Paper Award for 2005 from the Organization and Management Theory Division of the Academy of Management.