Alex Pittman

Alex Pittman is a Professor in the Department of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Barnard College, part of the College of Arts and Sciences. He joined the faculty in 2015 and contributes significantly to interdisciplinary scholarship at the intersection of race, gender, sexuality, and capitalism.

Education:

• B.A., University of Mary Washington
• M.A., Ph.D., New York University

His research centers on critical theory, materialist feminism, critical race and ethnic studies, and performance studies. He explores how social marginality, aesthetic practices, and material conditions shape post-Civil Rights capitalism. His work interrogates subjectivity, embodiment, and the politics of art and culture in contemporary life.

His publications span journals like Social Text and Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory. His recent articles examine commodification in literature, collective mourning in queer theory, and surveillance in performative gestures. His forthcoming article on Harry Crews analyzes intersections of race, sexuality, and bodily commodification.

Professor Pittman is an active member of the editorial collective of Social Text and serves on the advisory board of Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory.

He teaches courses such as "Critical Approaches in Social and Cultural Theory," "Pleasures and Power: An Introduction to Sexuality Studies," "Masculinities," and "Feminist Futures." His current book project, Under Pressure: Race, Performance, and the Intensification of Capital, aims to develop new frameworks for understanding the entanglement of marginality, art, and economic life.

His research has been supported by the Fisher Center at Hobart & William Smith Colleges. He is deeply engaged in feminist, queer, and critical race academic communities through editorial and pedagogical work.