Pilar Opazo is a Professor of the Practice in the “Management and Organizations” Department at the Carroll School of Management, Boston College.
Prior to Boston College, Pilar was a Post-Doctoral Associate and Lecturer in the “Work and Organization Studies” group at MIT Sloan School of Management and at the Columbia Graduate School of Business.
She did her PhD in Sociology at Columbia University. Her research explores how organizational contexts shape social behavior. Specifically, her research interests include organizational behavior, innovation and creativity, negotiation, qualitative methods, and sociological theory.
Her book “Appetite for Innovation: Change and Creativity at elBulli” (2016), published with
Columbia University Press, uses ethnographic techniques to examine the nature of radical and systematic innovation. Her investigation considers the case of elBulli, the avant-garde restaurant directed by Chef Ferran Adria that has pioneered the “molecular” or “experimental” cuisine movement in the gastronomy industry.
http://cup.columbia.edu/book/appetite-for-innovation/9780231176781 Pilar’s doctoral thesis received the “Robert K. Merton Award” for Best Dissertation in 2014, awarded by the Sociology Department at Columbia University. Her research has been supported by a Fulbright Scholarship and a grant awarded by Telefonica Digital, Barcelona, major telecommunication company in Spain and by Fulbright Chile.
Her other published works include the peer-reviewed articles, “Politics of Meaning in Categorizing Innovation” published in Organization Studies (2020, with Barbara Slavich, Silviya Svejenova and Gerardo Patriotta), “Order at the Edge or Chaos” published in Sociological Theory (2011, with Jorge Fontdevila and Harrison White) and “Discourse as a Driver of Innovation” published in the International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science (2012). Also, two Spanish-language books, “Negotiation: Competing or Collaborating” (2020, Second Edition, with Cristian Saieh and Dario Rodriguez) and “Communications in Organizations” (2007, with Dario Rodriguez, Second Edition in progress).
During 2008 and 2009, under the frame of the
Center on Organizational Innovation (COI), Pilar conducted ethnographic and network-analytic research at “Citilab” a center of social innovation located in Barcelona. Before coming to Columbia University, Pilar coordinated the Research Center of “Infocap,” a foundation that provides labor training to unskilled workers in Chile.
Professor of the Practice, Carroll School of Management, Boston College, Jul 2019 – present
Post-Doctoral Associate and Lecturer, MIT Sloan School of Management, Jul 2017 – Jun 2019
Post-Doctoral Research Scholar, Graduate School of Business, Columbia University, Jan 2014 – Jun 2017
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Business, Columbia University, Jan 2015 – Jun 2017
Affiliate, Initiative for the Study and Practice of Organized Creativity and Culture (ISPOCC), Graduate School of Business, Columbia University, Jan 2014 –Jun 2017
Education
PhD Sociology (May, 2014)
Department of Sociology, Columbia University
M.A. Sociology (May, 2010)
Department of Sociology, Columbia University
B.A. Sociology and Minor Philosophy
Catholic University of Chile, Magna Cum Laude
TEACHING CERTIFICATES AND TRAINING
Case Method Teaching Seminar, Harvard Business School, June 15-16, 2018
Kaufman Teaching Certificate Program (KTCP), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, June, 2018 (Teaching certificate for graduate and undergraduate teaching)
ADJUNCT PROFESSOR/LECTURER
-
“Managing People & Organizations,” Carroll School of Management, Boston College MBA Program, Fall 2020. Average teaching evaluations: 4.0/5.
- “Negotiations,” Carroll School of Management, Boston College, MBA Program, Fall 2020 and Undergraduate Program 2021. Average teaching evaluations: 4.4/5 and 4.7/5.0 respectively.
- “Managing People & Organizations,” Carroll School of Management, Boston College MBA Program, Fall 2020. Average teaching evaluations: 3.6/5.
- “Organizational Processes,” MIT Sloan School of Management, MBA Program, Fall 2017 and Fall 2018. Average teaching evaluations: 4.0/5.
- “Managerial Negotiations,” Columbia Business School, MSE Fall 2015 and Spring 2016. Average teaching evaluations: 4.9/5
- Co-Instructor “Innovation and Entrepreneurship: New Product Development,” with Prof. Michelle Greenwald. 2014. Columbia Univesrity, New York. Average teaching evaluations: 4.9/5
TEACHING ASSISTANT
- “Food & The Social Order”, Prof. Priscilla Ferguson 2013. Columbia University, New York.
- “Negotiation: Getting to Yes”, 2005, Catholic University of Chile.