It is with deep sadness and heavy hearts that we inform you of the death of our colleague and friend, Adam Valen Levinson, PhD, who passed away on November 28, 2024 at the age of 35. We recognize the shock and tragedy of Adam’s sudden loss, and our thoughts are with his family and friends during this difficult time.
We first met Adam in September 2016, when he arrived at Yale as a PhD student in the Sociology Department. During his first year at Yale, he found an intellectual home in the Center for Cultural Sociology and became one of our Junior Fellows, studying senses of humor as a key to cross cultural understanding. In 2017 he published his book, The Abu Dhabi Bar Mitzvah, written prior to his arrival at Yale. He received his PhD, “Meaning and Meaninglessness: The Global Standup Explosion” in 2023. He twice received the Young Scholar Award from the International Society of Humor Scholars. Most recently he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Princeton University, working with CCS Faculty Fellow Fred Wherry.
To those of us who worked with and cared for Adam this is a tremendous loss. Adam will be missed not only for his significant contributions to our understanding of society but also as a supportive and widely loved colleague and friend.
Adam was a bright comet who streaked across our intellectual firmament and then he passed on to another galaxy. The tail of this comet was long, and we grabbed on to it as Adam pulled us to new heights. I learned so much from Adam. He was an exciting and brilliant intellect and a witty, charming, and charismatic man. I am grateful for his brief presence here, in the sky above earth. ~ Jeffrey Alexander
Adam was a truly gifted individual who could turn his hand to stand-up comedy, travel writing and academic research and achieve seemingly effortless excellence in all of them. Witty, perceptive, worldly - and yet capable of dazzling, convoluted abstract thought - he was that brilliant friend to whom everything seemed to come easily while the rest of us struggled. The sad truth is that like so many brilliant friends around the world he struggled too. Adam leaves a legacy - memories of encounters, of a personality that was gentle and ironic simultaneously, and also some work that will stand the test of time. He will be missed. ~ Phil Smith