alexander@dactyl.org
Victoria N. Alexander is co-founder and director of the Dactyl Foundation for the Arts & Humanities, in New York City. She earned her Ph.D. in 2002 in English at the Graduate Center, CUNY and did her dissertation research in teleology, evolutionary theory, and complexity science at the Santa Fe Institute. Published in the Antioch Review, English Language Notes, Nabokov Studies, Pynchon Notes, E:CO and several visual art journals/magazines, Alexander has investigated chance and teleology in narrative by such diverse writers as Martin Amis, Saul Bellow, Louis Begley, Henry James, Milan Kundera, Vladimir Nabokov, C. S. Peirce, Thomas Pynchon, and Shakespeare. Her novels Smoking Hopes and Naked Singularity pursue similar themes involving coincidence and emergent intentionality. She has lectured at numerous institutions, science centers, museums, universities, private organizations, and conferences, and has taught writing at Hunter College, Mercy College, and the College of Staten Island. Her honors include a Rockefeller Foundation Residency (Bellagio, Italy), a Jewish Foundation for the Education of Women Fellowship, two Art & Science Lab Residencies (Santa Fe), Alfred Kazin Award for Best Dissertation (GC, CUNY), and the Washington Prize for Fiction.
Education
2002 Ph.D., English, The
Dissertation
title: Narrative Telos: The Ordering Tendencies of Chance.
Fields
of specialization: Narrative Theory, Philosophy of Science, and 20th Century
Novels.
Passed
Oral Examinations with Academic Distinction.
1994 M.A., English,
Master's
Thesis title: "Martin Amis: Between the
Influences of Bellow and Nabokov."
1990 B.A., English, English
Language Arts,
Magna
Cum Laude and Honors in
English.
Professional Experience
1996
- present Director
of Programs for Thought, Co-Founder
Dactyl Foundation for the Arts & Humanities,
Organizing
lectures, panels and art exhibitions.
1996 - present Novelist Specializing in literary and experimental fiction.
1994, 2000 Adjunct,
English Department,
Introduction to English Literature
and Expository Writing.
1994 Adjunct, English Department,
Expository Writing.
1990 - 1992 Instructor, English Department,
Intermediate Expository Writing.
1986 - 1993 Tutor, Writing Center,
Essay writing for all levels and
disciplines, ESL to graduate.
Publications--Theory/Criticism
2006 "Hopeful Monsters: Literary Teleology and Emergence." >E:CO 7: 3, 4.
2006 "C. S.
Peirce's Theory of Self-Organization and The Crying of Lot 49,"
Pynchon Notes 52 .
2004 Review of Angus Fletcher's New Theory for American Poetry, in Style.
2003 "Nabokov,
Teleology, and Insect Mimicry," Nabokov Studies 7 (2003).
2003 "Nabokov
and Insect Mimicry," Proceedings of the Vladimir Nabokov
Symposium,
2002 Review of Brian Boyd's Nabokov's Pale Fire and
the Magic of Artistic Discovery, in
2001 "Neutral Evolution and Aesthetics: Vladimir Nabokov and Insect Mimicry," Working Papers Series 01-10-057 (Santa Fe: Santa Fe Institute, 2001).
1999 "Polonius and Poland, a Coincidence," English Language Notes 36 (1999): 8-13.
1999 "Indeterminacy Revisited," zingmagazine 5 (1999): 33-38.
1997 "Louis Begley: Trying to Make Sense of It," Antioch Review 55 (1997): 292-304.
1994 "Martin Amis: Between the
Influences of Bellow and Nabokov," Antioch
Review 52 (1994): 580-590. reprinted in Contemporary
Literary Criticism 101, ed. Deborah Stanley
(
Publications--Theory--Online
1997 "Determining One's Fate: Henry James's Autobiography" (1997).
Publications--Literary
2003 Naked Singularity (The Permanent Press, 2003).
2000 "S,"
murmur 2 (2000): 142-143.
1997 "The
Bird Girl," Texas Short Stories (Browder Springs, 1997), 364-373.
1996 Smoking Hopes (The Permanent
Press, 1996).
Honors and Awards
2002 Alfred
Kazin Award for Best Dissertation, English Department, Graduate Center, CUNY
2001 Scholar
in Residence, Rockefeller Foundation Study and
Conference Center, Bellagio, Italy
2001 Dissertation
Fellowship, Jewish Foundation for the Education of Women, NY, NY
2001 Writer
in Residence, Art & Science Laboratory,
Santa Fe, NM
2001 Visiting
Researcher, Santa Fe Institute, Santa
Fe, NM
2000 Writer
in Residence, Art & Science Laboratory,
Santa Fe, NM
1998 Academic
Distinction, English Department, Graduate Center, CUNY
1995 Washington
Prize for Fiction, Kaufman Literary Agency, Arlington, VA (Smoking Hopes)
1992 Bernard
Cohen Prize for Fiction, Hunter College, NY, NY (Smoking Hopes)
1991 Mayor's
Scholarship, Hunter College, NY, NY
1990 Bernard
Cohen Prize for Fiction, Hunter College, NY, NY ("The Bird Girl")
Lectures
2004 "Ecopoetics,"
with Marcella Durand and Lytle Shaw, Dactyl Foundation, NY, NY
2004 "Euthanasia and
Fate," Virginia University, James Madison University, Delaware University.
2003 "On
Euthanasia, Moral Choice, and Science," Hemlock Society, New York,
NY; Hudson Valley Humanists, New
Paltz, NY; Washington Secular
Humanists, Baltimore, MD; Freethinkers of Colorado Springs, Colo Springs, CO;
Denver Atheists, Denver, CO; FACT, San Antonio TX
2003 "Nabokov
and Mimicry," Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO
2002
"Sacred/Secular: The Epiphenomenal in
Post 'Postclassical' Science,"
2001 "Nabokov
and Anti-Darwinian Evolution" Dactyl Foundation, New York, NY
2001 "Art Versus Science,"
Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, NM
2001
"Neutral
Evolution and Aesthetics: Vladimir Nabokov and Insect Mimicry," Santa Fe
Institute, NM
Conferences
2005 "Meaning,
Function & Context as Scientific Concepts" Society for Literature, Science,
and the Arts, Chicago, IL
2005 "Henry James'
Teleology" Society for the Study of Narrative Literature,
Louisville, KY
2004 "Ecology
and Ethics," Society for Literature and Science, Durham, NC
2004 "
Phenomenal Patterns: Naratology," PALA, NY, NY
2004 "James's
Pragmatic Teleology," Universite de Montreal, Quebec, Canada
2003 "Darwinian
Ecologies," Society for Literature and Science, Austin, TX
2003
"The
Status of Emergence," roundtable discussions with N. Katherine Hayles,
John Johnston, Eve Keller, and Susan Oyama, Society for Literature and Science,
Austin, TX--organizer
2002 "Nonlinearity
and Teleology," Society for Literature and Science, Cal-Tech,
Pasadena, CA
2002 "Nabokov and Insect Mimicry,"
Nabokov Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
2002 "Agency
in Henry James: From Positivism to Probabilism," Society for
the Study of Narrative Literature, E Lansing,
2001 "Genetic Determinism and Telos,"
Society for the Study of Narrative Literature, MLA, New Orleans, LA
2001 "Narrative
Teleology and Aesthetics," Determinism Workshop, Max Planck
Society, Ringberg Castle, Germany
2001
"Nabokov,
Evolution, and Aesthetics," American Literature Association, Cambridge, MA
2000
"Narrative
Teleology and New Physics, " Central NY Conference on Literature and
Language, SUNY Cortland,
2000
"The History of Chaos in
Science, Literature, and Art," Dactyl Foundation for the Arts
& Humanities, NY, NY--chair
2000
"Pynchon
and Complexity Science," Twentieth-century Literature Conference,
Louisville, KY
1998
"Art
and Science," Dactyl Foundation for the Arts & Humanities, New York,
NY
1998
"The
Interpreters," Dactyl Foundation for the Arts & Humanities, New York,
NY--chair
1991
"Writing
Across the Curriculum," Writing Centers Association, New York, NY
Selected Articles & Reviews of Naked Singularity
2004 Dallas Observer Winner "Best of 2003"
2004 Ethical Culture Review
2003 Texas Books in Review (March) "Beautifully written"
2002 Kirkus
Reviews (
2002 Publishers
Weekly (December 2002) "a
gut-wrenching topic...the lurid, macabre ending...seems barely
believable."
Selected Articles & Reviews of Smoking
Hopes
1997 Contemporary
Authors, ed. Deborah Stanley 152 (Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1997)
1996 New
York Post (August 14, 1996).
1996 The
Met (Dallas) (August, 1996) Cover
Story: "A solid, moving and funny work."
1996 The
Columbus Dispatch (Sunday, July
21, 1996).
1996 Paper
Magazine (June, 1996)
"Introspective and intellectual."
1996 The
Dallas Morning News (June 25,
1996).
1996 P.I.F.
Magazine (April, 1996)
"Incredible talent."
1996 Publishers
Weekly (February 16, 1996)
"A sophisticated, resonant debut."
1996 The
Dallas Morning News (Sunday,
February 11, 1996)"A dark comedy with cunning observations."
1996
San
Antonio Express-News (January 21,
1996) "A stunning first novel."
Video
Documentaries
2000 "The Look of
Love," Dactyl Foundation for the Arts & Humanities,
NY--producer
with
artist Alexandra Wiesenfeld
1999 "Don't Let Go,"
Dactyl Foundation for the Arts & Humanities, NY--concept development
with
artist James Gilroy and filmmaker Larry Clark
Curatorial Projects-Visual Art
2004 Yelena
Yemchuk, "Sensitive," Dactyl Foundation, NY
2002 Yelena
Yemchuk, "Phenomena+Existence
No. 1," Dactyl Foundation for the Arts & Humanities, NY
2002 James
Gilroy, "Before and
After 9/11," Dactyl Foundation for the Arts & Humanities,
NY
2002 Emily
Orling, "Infant
Paintings," Dactyl Foundation for the Arts & Humanities, NY
2000 Alexandra
Wiesenfeld, "The Look of Love," Dactyl Foundation for the Arts &
Humanities, NY
1999 James
Gilroy, "Information
Paintings," Dactyl Foundation for the Arts & Humanities, NY
Other
Language Requirement for Ph.D.
German, reading knowledge
Basic Calculus
References, Available Upon Request
Professor John Ashbery, Bard College,
Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
Professor James P. Crutchfield, Santa
Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM
Mr. Louis Begley, Debevoise &
Plimpton, New York, NY
Professor Emeritus David Gordon, Graduate
Center, CUNY, New York, NY
Professor Emeritus Angus Fletcher,
Graduate Center, CUNY, New York, NY
Professor Robert Fogarty, Antioch
College, Yellow Springs, OH
Professor Joan Richardson, Graduate
Center, CUNY, New York, NY
Professor Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Graduate Center, CUNY, New
York, NY
Professional Affiliations
International Association for Philosophy and Literature, International Vladimir
Nabokov Society, Modern Language Association, National Center for Science Education,
Secular Humanists Society, Society for Literature and Science, Society for the
Study of Narrative Literature, and Washington Area Secular Humanists.
Works-in-Progress
Trixie, Mad Pixie: a novel
Nabokov's
Bugs, Ghosts & Artists
Chaos
& Telos: an anthology
co-edited with James P. Crutchfield