Aliza Luft

Aliza Luft is associate professor of sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Her research examines how identity, ideology, social ties, and moral judgments shape individual decisions in contexts of war and extreme violence—including why people participate, resist, or remain passive. Drawing on qualitative, archival, and experimental methods, she develops theories of culture, morality, and political behavior, with particular attention to how social categories and relationships influence action during genocide.

She is the author of Sacred Betrayal: How the French Catholic Church Broke Its Pledge to Protect Jews During the Holocaust (Harvard University Press). Her research has appeared in American Sociological Review, Sociological Theory, European Journal of Sociology, Social Science History, and other journals and edited volumes. She has also written for and been interviewed by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, Los Angeles Times, and other publications.

Luft serves as interim director of UCLA’s Bedari Kindness Institute and the Initiative to Study Hate. Before joining UCLA, she worked with USAID, the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate, the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies, and Facing History & Ourselves.