Born and raised in Québec City, Canada, Zubrzycki was educated at McGill University and the Université de Montréal before obtaining her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Chicago. At the University of Michigan, she teaches undergraduate courses and graduate seminars in social theory, cultural sociology, the sociology of religion, and nationalism studies. In addition to her main appointment in the Department of Sociology, Zubrzycki is a faculty affiliate of the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies and the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies.

At U-M, Zubrzycki directs the Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia, and the Copernicus Center for Polish Studies. 

She serves on the Boards of Directors of the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America, and of The Reckoning Project, and is a member of the Advisory Board of the University of Warsaw’s Robert Zajonc Institute for Social Studies and the Centre de recherche interdisciplinaire sur la diversité et la démocratie (QC, Canada)