Bobby C. Alexander, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Sociology, and Public Policy and Political Economy in the School of Economic, Political, and Policy Sciences at The University of Texas at Dallas.  Dr. Alexander received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in Religious Studies in 1985; he also was awarded a Ph.D. in Systematic Theology by Union Theological Seminary in New York in the same year.  Dr. Alexander was awarded a Master of Philosophy in Religious Studies by Columbia in 1981, and a Master of Divinity in Systematic Theology by Union Seminary in 1976.  He received his Bachelor of Arts from Baylor University in 1973.  Dr. Alexander joined the UTD faculty in 1993 as Adjunct Lecturer in the formerly named School of Social Sciences before being appointed Senior Lecturer in that school and in the School of Arts and Humanities in 1999.  Prior to joining the faculty, he was Assistant Professor of Religious Studies in Dedman College at Southern Methodist University.  Before that, he was Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Program in Religion in the Department of Philosophy at Hunter College of the City University of New York and, previously, while working on his dissertation, Adjunct Faculty in the same program at Hunter College.

Dr. Alexander has published in the fields of social-scientific study of religion, Religious Studies, anthropology of religion, and Ritual Studies.  He is the author of two book monographs – originally published by the American Academy of Religion and currently in the catalog of Oxford University Press.  A recently completed co-edited book, of which Alexander is one of two primary authors, is under contract with The Edwin Mellen Press.  The book is based on a U.S. Department of Education FIPSE grant, for which Alexander was PI.  Dr. Alexander is currently working on a book monograph and related single-authored journal articles, and is developing new research in a series of articles co-authored with members of the UTD Asylum Research Team.  Alexander has single-authored journal articles in Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, Journal of Ritual Studies, Semeia: Journal for Biblical Interpretation, Listening: Journal of Religion and Culture, and was the lead authored of an article in the Journal for Hispanic Higher Education.  Book chapters appear in edited books by Sage Publications, Inc. and Greenwood Press.  Alexander authored articles in two editions of The Encyclopedia of Religion, an article in the Encyclopedia of Protestantism, and two articles in Encyclopaedia Britannica.  He has served as a reviewer for professional journals in social-scientific study of religion, ritual studies, and anthropology.  Alexander is a member of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and a past member of its Ritual Studies Steering Committee.

Dr. Alexander's research and publications treat religion and social change.  Informed by theories of religion and ritual as agents of social change found in sociology, anthropology, Religious Studies, and Ritual Studies, his research examines social change within the overlap of religion and other social arenas and social forces.  A special focus has been ways in which minority and marginal social groups have engaged their religious institutions and ideologies/theologies, and rituals as agents of change within the context of broader patterns of social conflict and change in other social institutions.  Alexander employs participant-observation ethnography as his primary research method.  One of his current research projects examines the performance of credibility in pursuit of political asylum.  His research has been funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, the Overbrook Foundation, CrossCurrents: The Association for Religion and Intellectual Life, the American Academy of Religion (AAR), the AAR's Southwest Commission on Religious Studies, and Southern Methodist University.  He is a member of the American Academy of Religion.

Dr. Alexander teaches research writing in sociology, a Core Course in UTD's Sociology program required of undergraduate majors in Sociology; immigrants and immigration in U.S. society; post-1965 immigrants, their religious organizations, and assimilation; and race and ethnicity.  He serves on dissertation committees in the School of Economic, Political, and Policy Sciences.  Alexander is a two-time recipient of the Student Choice Teaching Award presented by students in the formerly named School of Social Sciences at UTD.  He was twice nominated by UTD students for the Chancellor's Council Outstanding Teaching Award.  He was a three-time nominee for the Margareta Deschner Teacher Award given by the Women's Center at Southern Methodist University.

Alexander served as Assistant Dean and College Master in UTD's School of Social Sciences from 1999 to 2002.  He is a member of the Sociology Program Committee in the School of Economic, Political, and Policy Sciences.  Dr. Alexander is currently a member of UTD's University Calendar Committee.  He has been a member of UTD's Committee on Education Policy (CEP), which he has served as Chair; the Committee on Core Curriculum (CCC); Committee on Student Scholarships, which he has served as Vice Chair; the Advisory Committee of the Office of International Education; the Council of Masters, comprised of Assistant and Associate Deans of Undergraduate Studies in their respective schools; the President's Ad Hoc Committee for Community Outreach; and the Planning Committee of the UTD-U.N. Conference on Women, sponsored by the School of Social Sciences and the Dallas Chapter of the United Nations.  Dr. Alexander served as Faculty Advisor in UTD's Office of Undergraduate Education under the Dean of Undergraduate Education.  He is the long-time Faculty Advisor to the UTD Baha'i Association. 

Dr. Alexander is a member of Friends of the Yale Institute of Sacred Music (Yale ISM), an advisory body appointed by the Director of the Yale ISM.  He is a member of With One Voice, a Dallas-based coalition of public and government institutions – including Dallas County's Parkland Hospital – and non-profit organizations providing a variety of services to immigrants in North Texas, and a member of the Resource Council for the New Americans Project assisting immigrants residing in the region.  He is past President of the Board of Directors of the Oak Cliff Center for Community Studies, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization he founded together with principals of the FIPSE grant. Dr. Alexander is honorary Lifetime Member of the Board.