Ben Alexander

Ben Alexander holds an MA in British and American Literature from Columbia University and a PhD in British and American Literature from The Graduate Center, The City University of New York. Across the entirety of his time in graduate school, Alexander worked as a Manuscripts and Rare Books Specialist for the New York Public Library.

Alexander did his post-doc in the School of Information at UCLA where he taught various courses on archives and the history of books and printing before accepting his first Assistant Professor position at Queens College, The City University of New York. At Queens College Alexander was appointed Director of Archival Studies (School of Information) and Head of Special Collections and Archives (Queens College Libraries). After Queens College Alexander spent a year at Stanford University where he was a Visiting Scholar in the Department of English and Digital Lit Lab before accepting the position of Associate Profession (and Associate of American Studies) at the University of Sichuan, China. From the University of Sichuan Alexander accepted a Visiting Scholar appointment in the Department of English at Harvard University. He has been at Columbia since 2021 and teaches in the English and Film Studies Departments at Columbia University and in the Department of English / Film Studies at Barnard.