About

Larissa Buchholz is an Associate Professor of Communication Studies and Sociology (by courtesy) at Northwestern University, working at the intersections of the sociology of art and culture, global and transnational sociology, and theory. She has earned four graduate degrees, including a PhD in sociology from Columbia University, and is a faculty fellow at the Critical Realism Network at Yale University. Her scholarly work examines the emergence of a global cultural field and how artists achieve global visibility and recognition, notably through her book 'The Global Rules of Art' (Princeton University Press, 2022), which has been recognized as a significant contribution to sociology and art studies. Buchholz has published extensively, with over thirty academic pieces cited across six continents, and has delivered keynote addresses at leading international institutions. Her scholarship has received multiple awards, including a Fulbright Award, the Alex Inkeles Prize, and the Junior Theorist Award from the American Sociological Association. Outside her academic pursuits, she has consulted for cultural organizations internationally and has held visiting positions and seminars in various countries.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Political Science
• Aesthetics
• Economics
• Art
• Social Science
• History
• Art history
• Law
• Psychology
• Political economy

Selected publications

• Rethinking Relationalism in (Global) Field Theory: Four Critical Directions

  Palgrave Studies in Relational Sociology · 2025-01-01

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• Globalization

  2025-10-06

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• Habitus, Wissen und Bildung

  Kunst und Gesellschaft · 2025-01-01

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• “Global Art” between Autonomyand Heteronomy

  Princeton University Press eBooks · 2022-11-22

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  This chapter synthesizes key insights from the macro-, meso-, and micro-level analyses, providing an integrative picture of the emerging global art field and its divided economy. Similar to a Cubist painting, which portrays the same object from multiple perspectives, the chapter returns to the main puzzle at the center of this study and summarizes how the internally differentiated cultural economy has influenced the recognition of artists from different world parts—and, in this sense, cultural diversity—in contradictory and complex ways. The chapter singles out one specifically fascinating theoretical facet: the pronounced role that geography plays for field dynamics in a global context. It foregrounds how geographic situatedness, classifications, and meanings have become intertwined with the valuation of artists across borders in fundamental ways, which demands new understandings of artistic distinction and value beyond Bourdieu's mainly temporal parameters (e.g., new versus old, innovation versus tradition). The chapter then discusses how the global field model could be extended to other spheres of art and culture.

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• Notes

  Princeton University Press eBooks · 2022-11-22

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• The Global Rules of Art

  Princeton University Press eBooks · 2022 · 6 citations

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  • Political Science
  • Sociology
  • Aesthetics

  A trailblazing look at the historical emergence of a global field in contemporary art and the diverse ways artists become valued worldwide Prior to the 1980s, the postwar canon of “international” contemporary art was made up almost exclusively of artists from North America and Western Europe, while cultural agents from other parts of the world often found themselves on the margins. The Global Rules of Art examines how this discriminatory situation has changed in recent decades. Drawing from abundant sources—including objective indicators from more than one hundred countries, multiple institutional histories and discourses, extensive fieldwork, and interviews with artists, critics, curators, gallerists, and auction house agents—Larissa Buchholz examines the emergence of a world-spanning art field whose logics have increasingly become defined in global terms. Deftly blending comprehensive historical analyses with illuminating case studies, The Global Rules of Art breaks new ground in its exploration of valuation and how cultural hierarchies take shape in a global context. The book’s innovative global field approach will appeal to scholars in the sociology of art, cultural and economic sociology, interdisciplinary global studies, and anyone interested in the dynamics of global art and culture.

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• 8 “Global Art” between Autonomy and Heteronomy

  Princeton University Press eBooks · 2022-10-11

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• Diversity and Careers in a Dual Cultural World Economy

  Princeton University Press eBooks · 2022-11-22

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  This chapter explores how globalization has affected the recognition of contemporary artists from around the world with regard to symbolic and market recognition. It draws on data from Artprice and ArtFacts.Net. As the chapter describes, these online platforms provide rankings that map the relative success of tens of thousands of artists in these two dimensions. The chapter explains that Artprice focuses on artists' economic success in the global auction market, based on their annual sales volume. The ArtFacts ranking, by contrast, tracks the visibility and recognition of artists in the global exhibition space. Yet, whereas Artprice uses a straightforward monetary logic, ArtFacts follows a more intricate approach. Although ArtFacts is not entirely free of limitations, the chapter highlights that it offers a fitting indicator for symbolic capital because it attempts to represent the evaluation of cultural mediators who do not have straightforward commercial orientations. The chapter notes that ArtFacts allows us to empirically explore the shifting global canons of contemporary art according to cultural mediators, distinguishing artists with charismatic consecration from those who lack the symbolic recognition that would enable them to make decisive moves in the globalizing culture game.

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• Dedication

  Princeton University Press eBooks · 2022-11-22

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• A Note on the Type

  Princeton University Press eBooks · 2022-11-22

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Frequent coauthors

• Ulf Wuggenig

  Leuphana University of Lüneburg

  6 shared

• Matthias Thiemann

  4 shared

• Jan Fuhse

  4 shared

• Harrison C. White

  Weill Cornell Medicine

  4 shared

• Marc Amstutz

  European University Institute

  1 shared

• Jürgen Jost

  1 shared

• Meiyao Wu

  National Kaohsiung Normal University

  1 shared

• Aldo Mascareño

  1 shared

Awards & honors

• International Book Award for Art (2022)
• Faculty Honor Roll, Northwestern University (2022)
• Junior Thyssen Fellow, Institute for Advanced Study, Central…
• Junior Theorist Award, American Sociological Association (20…
• Junior Theorist Prize, International Sociological Associatio…