Professor of Sociology

Born to Greek parents in Albania in 1941, Alex moved to Greece six years later. In 1955 he came to the United States with his grandmother and brother, leaving the rest of his family in Albania. He attended high school in Worcester, Mass., and received his B.A. in sociology from Clark University in 1964. He then attended Brandeis University, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1970. He has taught at Regis College since 1971.

Alex lives in Watertown, Mass., where he is active in a number of community groups and served on the Watertown Town Council for six years. His major hobbies are bicycling on the paths along the Charles River as well as attending and producing folk music concerts. He has two daughters, Melissa and Ariane, and two grandchildren.

Alex's major interests are the family and divorce; race and discrimination; values, conflicts, and interests (usually called "deviance"); cultural anthropology; and work and occupations. His recent research has focused on divorce, and he has written three texts: People First: AnIntroduction to Social Problems (1982), Sociology: A Liberating Perspective (two editions, 1985 and 1989), and Families: Joys, Conflicts, and Changes (2004).  

Alex has also written a number of papers, the best known being his first: "The poverty of the sociology of deviance: nuts, sluts and perverts." Published in 1972, it has been reprinted in at least 20 books, including two that came out in 2005.