Ben Alexander

Ben Alexander teaches in the English and Films Studies Depts at Barnard and Columbia. His current teaching focuses on television history and includes courses entitled: History of American Television; When American Television Became American Literature; and American Television Drama. His edited volume entitled, This America Man: The Literary and Cultural Origins of 21st Century American Television will be published by Brill (European Perspectives on the United States series) during the Fall 2025 semester and he is advancing into contract for a second edited volume entitled (working title) 21st Century American Television and the Rise of Post Truth America. Alexander is also completing a monograph entitled, Yaddo: Shaping the American Century (in contract Cornell University Press).

Before coming to Columbia Alexander taught in the English Depts at Queens College (CUNY) and Sichuan University and was a Visiting Scholar in the English Depts at both Stanford University and Harvard University. Finally, Alexander worked his way through the entirety of his graduate school as a Rare Books and Manuscripts Specialist for the New York Public Library and also teaches graduate courses in curation, history of books and printing etc. in the Master’s of Library and Information Management program at Bovard College, University of Southern California.