Dr. Alexander received his undergraduate degree (with Honors) from Sewanee (the Univ. of the South). He studied with the New Critic, Andrew Lytle– editor of the Sewanee Review, novelist, and original Southern agrarian. Dr. Alexander received his M. A. and Ph.D. in literature from the University of Dallas, with political philosophy as a secondary field. He studied with Louise Cowan and political historian, M.E. Bradford. He also studied with students of the famed political theorist, Leo Strauss, including Allan Bloom ( The Closing of the American Mind).
Dr. Alexander held an interdisciplinary appointment (1992-2018) in English and Political Science at Franciscan University of Steubenville, (tenured, 1996), He chaired the English Department from 1992-1996. He taught courses spanning a wide range, including Dante, Shakespeare, as well as the American masters: Melville, Faulkner, O’Connor and the “American Shakespeare,” August Wilson. He also frequently taught in Franciscan’s Honors Program of “great books” where he offered seminars in the Renaissance (Shakespeare, Milton, Machiavelli, Metaphysical poets) and modern periods (existential writers and thinkers, (James Joyce, William Faulkner, Ralph Ellison et.al.)
Dr. Alexander has also taught at :
Hillsdale College (tenured, 1985).
Hampden-Sydney College (Va.)
George Mason University,
Catholic University of America,
Washington College (Maryland),
Marymount University (Va.)
Dr. Alexander is editor of the acclaimed Good Things Out of Nazareth: Letters of Flannery O’Connor and Friends (Random House, 2019). The collection features her letters, as well as those of O’Connor’s friends such as the Catholic existential novelist, Walker Percy.
In addition to his academic career, Dr. Alexander was a speechwriter/ consultant to the U.S. Secretary of Education (1991-92) and served in other agencies of the Federal government. As a speechwriter for USIA, Dr. Alexander covered the Gorbachev-Bush summit in 1990 and was in close proximity to the 2-day deliberations. Dr. Alexander has also served as an expert jurist for the National Endowment for the Humanities where he evaluated grants for NEH funding.