academic life

Courses at elon

  • The Science of Happiness

  • The Science of Happiness at Disney

  • Self and Society

  • Sociology and Mental Health

  • Medical Sociology

  • Authenticity: Is there a true self?

My Educational and Professional Journey

Current Position:

Professor and Department Chair, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Elon University

Publications :

Alexis has published in academic journals and books including Sociology Compass, Aging and Mental Health, and Personality and Individual Differences. Her scholarship appears in Authenticity in Culture, Self, and Society and the Handbook of Social Psychology. A chapter is in press in The Oxford Handbook of Authenticity.

She co-edited, with Dr. Jill Peterfeso, Why the Magic Matters: Discovering Disney as a Laboratory for Learning, published by Bloomsbury on September 4, 2025. Buy the book

Her forthcoming book on authenticity, written with Paula Spencer Scott, is under contract with HarperCollins.

Education:

Clinical Internship (Psychology), Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center

Graduate study at Duke University:

M.A. and Ph.D., Sociology (Ph.D. 2007)

M.A. and Ph.D., Clinical Psychology (Ph.D. 2011)

Undergraduate study at Union College: B.A.