Eva Illouz is a renowned sociologist. Her research focuses on the sociology of capitalism, the sociology of emotions, the sociology of gender and the sociology of culture. Her work explores several significant and thought-provoking themes, such as the influence of capitalism on emotions, the commodification of romance and the meaning of freedom, choice, and individualism in the modern world. Several of her major works are: Consuming the Romantic Utopia: Love and the Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism (University of California press, 1997); Cold Intimacies: The Making of Emotional Capitalism (Polity Press, 2007); Why Love Hurts: A Sociological Explanation (Polity Press, 2012); Unloving: A Sociology of Negative Relations (Oxford University Press, 2018).