ALEXANDRIA VASQUEZ, PHD
she/her · San Rafael, California
alexandria.vasquez@gmail.com · alexandriavasquez.com
linkedin.com/in/alexandriavasquez
RESEARCH
My research examines identity, labor, and material culture at the intersection of dress, embodiment, and late modern selfhood. My original theoretical contribution — sartorial labor, extending Hochschild’s emotional labor framework into the domain of dress — argues that the daily work of clothing the self is reproductive labor, unequally distributed across gender, race, and class, and that identity destabilization is the structural mechanism driving compulsive fashion consumption. This work is grounded in a three-study empirical research program and sixteen years of sustained scholarly inquiry, including seven years of autoethnographic design practice.
EDUCATION
PhD, Sociology — Brandeis University, 2019
Dissertation: Misfit: The Impact of Mismatched Jobs on Creative Workers and the Organizations That Employ Them
Qualifying Areas: Medical Sociology, Work & Occupations, Organizations
MS, Sociology — Virginia Commonwealth University, 2012
Areas: Medical Sociology, Economic Sociology, Public Sociology
BA, Liberal Arts — The New School, 2009
Concentration: Democracy & Cultural Pluralism
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENT
Affiliate Faculty, Department of Sociology — University of San Francisco, 2023–present
Introduction to Sociology · Social Problems · Sociology of Health · Career Exploration & Planning
BOOK PROJECT
The Identity Gap: Clothing the Self in an Age of Manufactured Instability
Book proposal under active submission to academic press. The book introduces sartorial labor as an original theoretical framework extending Hochschild’s emotional labor into the domain of dress, grounded in three original empirical studies: a wardrobe interview study (Study I, 48 participants), a wardrobe swap study (Study II), and a mirror removal study (Study III). The book argues that the gap between performed and authentic self is not a psychological condition but an engineered structural mechanism — and that consumption is downstream of identity. Full proposal and sample chapters available upon request.
PUBLICATIONS & WORK UNDER REVIEW
Under Review
Vasquez, A. “Clothing the Self: Material Resources, Reflexive Identity Work, and Sartorial Labor.” Under review at Fashion Theory.
Vasquez, A. “The Decline of Performative Capital.” Under review at Theory and Society.
Vasquez, A. “How Organizations Fail by Hiring for Culture Fit: The Costs of Mismatched Labor.” Under review at Administrative Science Quarterly.
In Development
Vasquez, A. “Who Pays to Get Dressed? Sartorial Labor, the Social Tax, and the Misassignment of Sustainability Accountability.” Target venue: Contexts (ASA).
Vasquez, A. “A World Without Mirrors: Embodied Self-Knowledge and the Reflexive Gaze in Everyday Dress.” Working draft.
Published
Sharone, O. and A. Vasquez. 2015. “Sociology as a Strategy of Support for Long-Term Unemployed Workers.” The American Sociologist. 47(1).
Sharone, O., R. Ghayad, and A. Vasquez, et al. 2015. “Supporting Experienced Long-Term Unemployed Professionals.” In Transforming U.S. Workforce Development Policies for the 21st Century. Federal Reserve. Washington, D.C.
Conrad, P., J. Bandini, and A. Vasquez. 2016. “Illness and the Internet: From Private to Public Experience.” Health (London). 20(1):22–32.
Vasquez, A. 2019. Misfit: The Impact of Mismatched Jobs on Creative Workers and the Organizations That Employ Them. Brandeis University ProQuest Dissertations Publishing. 22616721.
EMPIRICAL RESEARCH
Primary Investigator — Clothing the Self III (Study III) — San Francisco Bay Area, 2026
Embodied Dressing and Visual Self-Monitoring: A Study of Everyday Life Without Mirrors. IRB approved.
Primary Investigator — Clothing the Self II (Study II) — San Francisco Bay Area, 2026
Identity Reconstruction and Ontological Security When Primary Material Resources Are Compromised.
Primary Investigator — Clothing the Self (Study I) — San Francisco Bay Area, 2025
Material Resources, Reflexive Identity Work, and Sartorial Labor. 48 participants across qualitative interviews and survey methods.
Research Associate — Institute for Career Transitions — MIT, 2013–15
Co-investigator with Ofer Sharone on structural misattribution and identity in long-term unemployment. Research published by the Federal Reserve; covered by NBC Business News.
SELECTED PRESENTATIONS
American Sociological Association — New York, NY, 2026
“The Decline of Performative Capital: From Identity Politics to Ecological Futures.” Culture section.
“Clothing The Self: Material Resources, Reflexive Identity Work, and Sartorial Labor.” Body and Embodiment section.
Symbolic Interaction and the Qualitatives — Brock, Niagara Falls, Canada, 2026
“Clothing The Self: Material Resources, Reflexive Identity Work, and Sartorial Labor.”
SF Climate Week — San Francisco, CA, 2024, 2025, 2026
Recurring speaker. Selected talks: “The Ritual of Dress” (2026); “Fashion Waste: Policy and Practice: SB707” (2024).
SF Big Brain — San Francisco, CA, 2025
“Clothing the Self: The Meaning Behind What We Wear.” Sold out within 24 hours of ticket release.
SF Startup Art Fair — San Francisco, CA, 2025, 2026
Invited speaker. “The Living Archive: Herderin’s Approach to Embodied Regeneration” (2026).
Fibershed — Point Reyes, CA, 2023–2026
Recurring speaker and workshop leader. Topics include regenerative design, embodied dressing, and sartorial labor.
American Sociological Association — Montreal, QC, 2024
“Building Intersectional Knowledge in Artisanal Practice.”
American Sociological Association — Philadelphia, PA, 2018
“Innovation as a Social Process: Competition, Strategic Resources, and Recombinatorial Identity Expression.”
TEACHING
University of San Francisco — 2023–2025
Introduction to Sociology · Sex & Sexualities · Sociology of Innovation · Social Problems · Career Exploration · Sociology of Health
Mills College — 2019–2020
Medical Sociology · Public Health · Introduction to Sociology
Brandeis University — Teaching Fellow & Adjunct — 2012–2018
Social Class & Social Change · Culture & Consumption · Health, Community & Society · Media and Politics
Drexel University — 2015–2017
Sociology of Aging · Social Problems · Introductory Sociology · Wealth & Power
SELECTED AFFILIATIONS & INSTITUTIONAL CONNECTIONS
Co-Founder — Institute for Career Transitions — MIT, 2013–2015
Research published by the Federal Reserve. Covered by NBC Business News.
Board Member — Circular Textile Alliance — 2026–present
Governance Working Group Advisor — Fibershed — 2024–present
Producer & Co-Op Member — Fibershed — 2019–present
Herderin holds Fibershed Climate Beneficial™ certification. Featured brand at Fibershed Learning Center.
Founder — Herderin — 2019–present
Regenerative clothing design studio practice. Autoethnographic research site for the book’s empirical program.
SELECTED MEDIA COVERAGE
Fashionista, February 2026: “Herderin: A Regenerative Fashion Brand.”
EcoCult, April 2026: “Tall Girls Deserve Natural Fibers, Too.”
Marin Magazine, March 2021: “Healing By Design: How a Sociologist Created a Clothing Brand for Emotional Comfort.”
Garmentory, April 2025: “Clothing the Self with Herderin.”
Fibershed, November 2024: “Intertwining: A Story of the Living World Through Material Form.”
Fibershed, February 2023: “Herderin Begins With the Body and Soul.”
NBC Business News, January 2014: “Running Out of Money: Long-Term Unemployed Face Grim New Year.”
Updated May 2026