Seymour Spilerman

Seymour Spilerman is the Julian C. Levi Professor of Sociology at Columbia University and Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Wealth and Inequality.  His publications are in the areas of  household wealth, collective violence, and terrorism.

In his studies of household wealth, Spilerman has focused on intergenerational financial linkages, mainly the way that parents advantage their offspring by targeted transfers of wealth.  The outcome variables of interest have been waiting time to home ownership by adult children, value of the acquired home, and other indicators of living standard and asset holdings of the children.

Spilerman''s studies of terrorism follow his earlier investigations of race rioting in the US.  In his terrorism research, the emphasis has been on how societies adapt to the threat of terrorism; how the adaptation differs according to whether terror attacks are a relatively rare event or represent a chronic, on-going experience in which there may be little sense of a return to the status quo ante.  His empirical research has examined the Israeli experience.

Education

• PhD, Johns Hopkins
• MA, Brandeis University
• BA, Pomona College

Affiliations

• Co-Director, Center for the Study of Wealth and Inequality 
• Member, American Sociological Association

Honors & Awards

• Romnes Award
• Guggenheim Fellow
• Einstein Fellow, Israeli Academy of Sciences
• Lady Davis Fellow, Hebrew University, Jerusalem