Alexandria Vasquez

Professor Vasquez studies clothing the self as labor — sartorial labor, her theory extending Hochschild's emotional labor into dress — arguing this reproductive labor is unequally distributed by gender, race, and class, with identity destabilization driving compulsive fashion consumption. A related line of work on "performative capital" examines the diminishing career returns of consumption-based professional belonging. Her research combines ethnography, embodied experiments, and autoethnographic design practice, grounding her forthcoming book, "The Identity Gap: Clothing the Self in an Age of Manufactured Instability".

• Body and embodiment
• Material culture and consumption
• Fashion and society
• Identity and self
• Sartorial and reproductive labor

• Body and Embodiment
• Social theory
• Economic sociology
• Work and organizations
• Medical sociology
• Qualitative methods and ethnography

• Program Committee Member, Body and Embodiment Section, American Sociological Association (2026–Present)
• Board Member, Circular Textile Alliance (2026–Present)
• Governance Working Group Advisor, Fibershed (2024)

• Brandeis University, PhD in Sociology, 2019
• Virginia Commonwealth University, MS in Sociology, 2012
• The New School, BA in Liberal Arts, 2009

• Affiliate Faculty, Sociology — University of San Francisco (2023–Present)
• Owner & Founder, Herderin (2018–Present)
• Part-Time Faculty in Sociology, Mills College (2019–2020)
• Teaching Fellow & Adjunct in Sociology, Brandeis University (2012–2018)
• Adjunct Faculty in Sociology, Drexel University (2015–2017)
• Research Associate, Institute for Career Transitions, MIT (2013–2015)

• Vasquez, A. 2026. “Clothing the Self: Material Resources, Reflexive Identity Work, and Sartorial Labor.” Under review at Fashion Theory.
• Vasquez, A. 2026. “How Organizations Fail by Hiring for Culture Fit: The Costs of Mismatched Labor.” In Review at Administrative Science Quarterly.
• Vasquez, A. and Alexandra Nugent. 2026. “Clothing The Self: Material Resources, Reflexive Identity Work, and the Social Dimensions of Everyday Dressing.” In Review at Symbolic Interaction.
• Vasquez, A. 2026. “The Decline of Performative Capital: From Identity Politics to Ecological Futures” In Review at Theory and Society.
• Conrad, P, J. Bandini and A. Vasquez. 2016. “Illness and the Internet: From Private to Public Experience.” Health (London). 20(1):22-32.
• Sharone, O., and A. Vasquez. 2015. “Sociology as a Strategy of Support for Long-Term Unemployed Workers.” The American Sociologist. (47)1.