Alison Gerber is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology at Yale University and a junior fellow of the Center for Comparative Research and the Center for Cultural Sociology. Her research focuses on work, culture, and public life. Her dissertation research examines variation in the ways artists define the value of their activities in order to investigate mechanisms that influence monetary valuation and occupational commitment. The project aims to develop a theory of valuation and its variation within occupations, and to illuminate valuation outside of stable employment relationships in order to contribute to our understanding of artists as well as economic and working life more generally.