Alix’s work has centered in creative process and intellectual engagement for the goal of healing people, society, and their environment.

Her research and creative practice for over the last decade has focused the social- and emotional connection to clothing. Her current study, Clothing The Self, draws together audiences of climate advocacy, body positivity movements, and theorists of identity and selfhood. In this work, she argues that a sustainable consumption movement ought to address the social- and emotional needs of people to deepen the interrogation of fashion and its discontents.

Alix has researched the social- and emotional relationship to both work and unemployment; clothing and consumption; childbearing practices; health- and stigma; and sexualities. She wrote her dissertation on mismatched work among college educated professionals, as well as conducted ground-breaking research on how long-term unemployment spells can be relieved. As a result of these findings, she co-created a MIT-based nonprofit with a team of researchers led by sociologist, Ofer Sharone. Her work on long-term unemployment has been heralded by former President Barack Obama and was impactful to the signing of a pledge by over 300 corporations.

Under her mentor, medical sociologist, Peter Conrad, she co-authored a number of papers on health, stigma and social connection on the Internet. She also had written about the medicalization of women’s sexuality, and conducted research on elective cesarean section delivery among women: Choosing Surgical Birth: Personal Choice and Medical Jurisdiction.

She teaches in the Sociology Department at The University of San Francisco and has a creative practice for clothing design and craft under studio name, Herderin. She is a producer and member of Fibershed, and has worked to develop the governance structure for the Northern California members.

You may have found Alix giving a talk at the annual American Sociology Association meeting, presenting her latest work from Herderin at West Coast Craft, or giving a talk or presenting an exhibition as part of SF Design Week, SF Climate Week, and Fibershed’s annual design challenges.

She is now embarking on creating joy by offering sorbet and sorbet cakes through Sïana’s Sorbet, which will be available in small batches come 2026. This is her prayer for a happy life and offering the simple medicine of love. It is a response to "What will you do with a PhD in Sociology?”

Mais Fica