Biography

VICTORIA ALEXANDER joined the Sociology Department in 1996 as the Foundation Fund Lecturer in Economic Sociology. She was previously Associate Professor of Sociology and Core Faculty in the Organizational Behavior PhD Program at Harvard University.

She is Vice-Chair of the European Sociological Association’s Research Network on the Sociology of the Arts. She was a Visiting Academic at the Skoll Centre, Saïd Business School, Oxford University, for the academic year 2005-06.

Research Interests

Dr Alexander's research has been in the intersection of the sociology of the arts and the sociology of organisations. She also does work in visual sociology.

She has studied the funding of art museums, the use of information technology in museums, cultural policy in comparative perspective, sociology of the arts, and visual sociology.

She has recently been engaged on an ESRC-funded project, "Investigating Practice and Process in Integrating Methodologies: A Demonstrator Project Drawing on Empirical Studies of Strategies for Managing 'Vulnerabilities'" (2003-05), with Jo Moran-Ellis (PA), Ann Cronin, Jane Fielding & Hilary Thomas (Department of Sociology, University of Surrey). This project looked at the methodological aspects of multi-methods projects using a substantive focus on the concept of vulnerability. Dr Alexander's specific focus in the project was a visual exploration of vulnerability in the built environment.

Her areas of expertise include: Organizational theory (neo-institutional theory, economic sociology, organizational culture, nonprofit management), Sociology of art, Sociology of culture (empirical), Museums, Cultural policy, Visual sociology, and Mixed methods.

Publications

Books:
Alexander , Victoria D. and Marilyn Rueschemeyer (2005). Art and the State: The Visual Arts in Comparative Perspective, St Antony’s Series. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Alexander , Victoria D. (2003). Sociology of the Arts: Exploring Fine and Popular Forms. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. Translations: Chinese (complex characters), Chinese (simplified characters), Serbian and Persian.

Alexander , Victoria D. (1996). Museums and Money: The Impact of Funding on Exhibitions, Scholarship, and Management. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

Articles and Book Chapters:

Alexander, Victoria D. (Forthcoming). ‘Public institutions of high culture’. To appear in John R. Hall, Laura Grindstaff and Ming-cheng Lo, eds., Sociology of Culture: A Handbook. Routledge.

Alexander, Victoria D. (2008). ‘Cultural Organizations and the State: Art and State Support in Contemporary Britain’ Sociology Compass 2(5): 1416-1430. (Available online at: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118902502/home)

Cronin, Ann, Victoria D. Alexander, Jane Fielding, Jo Moran-Ellis, and Hilary Thomas (2008). 'The Analytic Integration of Qualitative Data Sources', in Pertti Alasuutari,Julia Brannen and Leonard Bickman, eds., Handbook of Social Research Methods, Sage, pp. 572-84.

Alexander, Victoria D. (2008). 'Analysing Visual Materials', in Nigel Gilbert, ed. Researching Social Life, 3rd edition. Sage, pp. 462-481.

Alexander, Victoria D., Hilary Thomas, Ann Cronin, Jane Fielding and Jo Moran-Ellis (2008). 'Mixed Methods', in Nigel Gilbert, ed. Researching Social Life, 3rd edition. Sage, pp. 125-144.

Alexander, Victoria D. (2007). ‘State Support of Artists: the Case of the UK in a New Labour Environment and Beyond,’ Journal of Arts Management, Law and Society, 37:3: 185-200.

Alexander, Victoria D. (2007). ‘Enterprise Culture’ in Stewart Clegg and James R. Bailey, eds., International Encyclopedia of Organization Studies, Sage, Volume 2, pp. 445-446.

Moran-Ellis, J., V. D. Alexander, A. Cronin, J. Fielding, and H. Thomas (2007). ‘Practice and Process in Integrating Methodologies (PPIMs)’. Methods Briefing, 30, published online at: http://www.ccsr.ac.uk/methods/publications/

Alexander, Victoria D. (2006). ‘A Delicate Balance: Museums and the Marketplace’, in Richard Sandell and Robert R. Janes, eds., Museum Management and Marketing, Routledge.

Moran-Ellis, Jo, Victoria D. Alexander, Ann Cronin, Jane Fielding and Hilary Thomas (2006). 'Analytic Integration and Multiple Qualitative Data Sets,' Qualitative Researcher, 2 (Spring): 2-4

Moran-Ellis, Jo, Victoria D. Alexander, Ann Cronin, Mary Dickinson, Jane Fielding, Judith Sleney, and Hilary Thomas (2006). "Triangulation and Integration: Processes, Claims and Implications", Qualitative Research , 6 (1): 45-59.

Alexander , Victoria D. (2001). "Analysing Visual Materials," in Nigel Gilbert, ed. Researching Social Life, second edition. London: Sage, pp. 343-357.

Alexander , Victoria D. (2001). "Markets, Artistic and Cultural," in Neil J. Smelser and Paul B. Baltes, eds. International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Oxford: Pergamon Press, vol. 14, pp. 9231-9236.

Alexander , Victoria D. (2000). "Pictures at an Exhibition: Conflicting Pressures in Museums and the Display of Art," Reprinted (abridged) in Gigi Bradford, Michael Gary and Glenn Wallach, eds. Coming into Focus: Essays in the Emerging Field of Culture and Policy. New York: The New Press, pp. 178-207. (Originally appeared in the American Journal of Sociology, 101: 797-839, 1996.)

Alexander , Victoria D. (1999). "A Delicate Balance: Museums and the Market-place," Museum International, vol. 51, no. 2 (April-June), pp. 29-34. (Commissioned and published in English, French, Spanish, Russian, and Arabic.)

Alexander , Victoria D. (1998). "Environmental Constraints and Organizational Strategies: Com­plexity, Conflict, and Coping in the Nonprofit Sector," in Walter W. Powell and Elisabeth Clemens, eds. Private Action and the Public Good. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, pp. 272-290.

Alexander , Victoria D. (1997). "They Know What They Like," Advancing Philanthropy, vol. 4, no. 4 (Spring), pp. 24-29.

Alexander , Victoria D. (1996). "Pictures at an Exhibition: Conflicting Pressures in Museums and the Display of Art," American Journal of Sociology, vol. 101, no. 4 (January), pp. 797-839.

Alexander , Victoria D. (1996). "From Philanthropy to Funding: The Effects of Corporate and Public Support on American Art Museums," Poetics: Journal of Empirical Re­search on Literature, the Media and Arts, vol. 24, nos. 2-4 (special issue; November), pp. 89-131.

Alexander , Victoria D. (1996). "Monet for Money? Museum Exhibitions and the Role of Corporate Spon­sor­ship," in Rosanne Martorella, ed. Art and Business: An International Perspective on Sponsorship. Westport, CT: Praeger, pp. 213-223.

Alexander , Victoria D. (1996). "Art and Politics," Culture (Newsletter of the Culture Section of the American Sociological Association), vol. 10, no. 2 (Winter), pp. 5-6.

Alexander , Victoria D. (1995). "Models of Museums, Models of Art," Culture (Newsletter of the Culture Section of the American Sociological Association), vol. 10, no. 1 (Fall), pp. 1, 3-6.

Alexander , Victoria D. (1994). "The Image of Children in Magazine Advertisements from 1905 to 1990," Communication Research, vol. 21, no. 6 (December), pp. 742-765.

Corse, Sarah M. and Victoria D. Alexander (1993). "Education and Artists: Changing Patterns in the Training of Paint­ers," in Muriel Cantor and Cheryl Zollars, eds. Creators of Culture: Occupations and Professions in Culture Industries, Volume 8 in the series Current Research on Occupa­tions and Profes­sions. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, pp. 101-117.

Held, Philip J. and Victoria D. Alexander (1986). "Rehabilitation and the Availability of Evening Dialy­sis," Health Care Financing Review, vol. 7, no. 2 (Winter), pp. 31‑37.

Alexander , Victoria D. and Peggy A. Thoits (1985). "Token Achievement: An Examination of Proportion­al Representation and Performance Outcomes," Social Forces, vol. 64, no. 2 (December), pp. 332‑340.

Recent Conference Papers and Invited Talks:

Alexander, Victoria D. (2008). ‘Cultural Policy in the UK: The Arts Debate’. Paper presented at the conference, Arts, Culture and the Public Sphere: Expressive and Instrumental Values In Economic and Sociological Perspective. Venice, Italy, 4 - 8 November 2008.

Alexander, Victoria D. (2007). ‘Beyond Blair’s Britain: Uncertainty for Artists and Arts Institutions’, 8th Conference of the European Sociological Association, Conflict, Citizenship and Civil Society, Glasgow, 4 September 2007.

Alexander, Victoria D. (2007) ‘State Support of Artists: The Case of the UK in a New Labour Environment and Beyond’. Plenary talk given at the Conference of the European Sociological Association (ESA), Research Network for the Sociology of the Arts, New Frontiers in Arts Sociology: Creativity, Support and Sustainability, Lüneburg, Germany, 30 March 2007.

Moran-Ellis, Jo, Victoria D. Alexander, Ann Cronin, Jane Fielding, and Hilary Thomas (2006). 'Integrating Across Data Sets at the Point of Analysis,' Invited talk for the seminar Combining Social Research Methods, Data and Analyses, organised by Qualiti (University of Cardiff) and held at University of Surrey, 22 February 2006.

Alexander, Victoria D. (2005). 'Views of the Neighbourhood: A Photo-Elicitation Study of the Built Environment,' Invited Talk - Department of Sociology Speaker Series, University of Reading, 10 November 2005.

Moran-Ellis, Jo, Victoria D. Alexander, Ann Cronin, Jane Fielding, and Hilary Thomas (2005). ' Synergies and Tensions in Using Multiple Methods to Study Vulnerability: Asking Questions,' Paper presented at the conference, Mixed Methods: Identifying the Issues, Manchester, 26-27 October 2005.

Moran-Ellis, Jo, Victoria D. Alexander, Ann Cronin, Jane Fielding, and Hilary Thomas (2005). 'Achieving Integration in Multi-Method Research: Possibilities and Hesitations,' Paper presented at the 37th World Congress of the International Institute of Sociology , July 5-9 2005.

Moran-Ellis, Jo, Victoria Alexander, Ann Cronin, Mary Dickinson, Jane Fielding, Judith Sleney, and Hilary Thomas (2004). 'Multi-Methods, Triangulation, and Integration: Different Goals or Just Different Terms?,' Paper presented at the ISA Research Committee on Logic and Methodology, RC33 Sixth International Conference on Social Science Methodology, Recent Developments and Applications in Social Research Methodology, Amsterdam, August 17-20, 2004.

Alexander , Victoria D. (2004). ' A Visual Exploration of Vulnerability in the Built Environment,' Paper accepted for presentation at the International Visual Studies Association Annual Conference , San Francisco Art institute, San Francisco, CA, August 11-13. (Not presented due to ill-health.)

Moran-Ellis, Jo, Victoria Alexander, Ann Cronin, Mary Dickinson, Jane Fielding, Judith Sleney, and Hilary Thomas (2004). 'Following a Thread: An Approach to Integrating Multi-Method Data Sets,' Paper presented at the Research Methods Programme's Research Methods Festival, Oxford, July 1-2 2004.

Alexander , Victoria D. (2003). "Museums and Enterprise Culture." Invited paper for a special session on "Museum Culture" organised by Diane Barthel for the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Atlanta, 16-19 August, 2003.

Alexander, Victoria D. (2003). "An Ace Café with a Museum Attached: Marketisation and Museums in the US and the UK." Paper presented at the International Sociological Association & European Sociological Association Joint Interim Meeting, Paris, 14 -18 April 2003.

Alexander , Victoria D. (2002). "Globalization and the Gift Shop: Arts Policy in the US and the UK." Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Chicago, 16-19 August, 2002.

Alexander , Victoria D. (2002). "The Two Roads to Market: Arts Policy in the United States and the United Kingdom." Paper presented at the British Sociological Association's Annual Conference, University of Leicester, 25-27 March, 2002.

Alexander , Victoria D. (2002). "Globalisation and the Gift Shop: The Funding of Art Museums in the US and the UK." Invited talk, Departmental Seminar, Department of Anthropology, Oxford University, 8 March, 2002.

Alexander , Victoria D. (2001). "Studying Visual Artists as Workers." Paper presented at the Work, Employment & Society Conference, University of Nottingham, 11-13 September, 2001.

Alexander , Victoria D. (2001). "Art Museums and Ageing." Paper presented at the European Sociological Association's Conference, Helsinki, Finland, 28 August - 1 September, 2001.

Teaching

Dr Alexander currently teaches Sociology of Art and Organisational Analysis at the undergraduate level and Documentary Analysis at the MSc level. She supervises PhD students in the areas of the arts, cultural and economic sociology, and organisations.

PhD Supervision
Dr Alexander supervises PhD students in the areas of the arts, cultural sociology, economic sociology, and organisations.

Professional Activities

International Management Boards:
Vice-Chair, European Sociological Association’s Research Network on the Sociology of the Arts, 2007-present.
Executive Board Member, International Sociological Association's Research Council 37, Sociology of Art, 1998-2002.

Elected Council Member, American Sociological Association’s Section on the Sociology of Culture, three-year term, 1997-1999.

Other Recent Professional Activities:
Chair, Best Article Award Committee, American Sociological Association’s Section on the Sociology of Culture, 2009.

Co-Convenor, 2 day-courses: 'Multi-Methods Research Workshop – Synergies & Tensions', organised and run by Jo Moran-Ellis, Victoria Alexander, Ann Cronin, Jane Fielding and Hilary Thomas, University of Surrey, 13 and 20 July 2005.

Organiser: Two Regular Sessions on "Popular Culture," American Sociological Association's Annual Meeting, San Francisco, 14-18 August, 2004.

Organiser: Special Session, "The Comparative Study of Cultural Organizations," American Sociological Association's Annual Meeting, Toronto, 9-13 August, 1997.

Reviewer for American Journal of Sociology, American Sociological Review, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Poetics, Social Forces, Sociological Research Online, Sociological Theory, and Visual Communication, and proposals for the ESRC and the National Science Foundation (US).

Editorial Activities

Member, Advisory Board, International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, 2006-present.

Member, Editorial Board, Poetics: Journal of Empirical Re­search on Literature, the Media and Arts, 1997-present.

Contributing Editor, American Journal of Sociology, 1998-2000.
Book Review Co-Editor: Sociological Research Online. 1996-97.