Dr Alexa Neale / Dr Lex is Assistant Professor (Lecturer) in Criminology and Sociology at the University of Sussex in Brighton, England. Her pronouns are she/her/hers.

She is interested in the stories we tell to make sense of ourselves and the world around us. Read on for her story or skip to Academic CV, Research Interests or Publications.

school and early employment

Alexa left school aged 17 and didn’t make non-compulsory education stick until she was in her mid-20s. Developing a passion for local, family and migration history after the death of her Scouse-Scottish-Lithuanian Great-Grandfather, she started tracing her family tree and the histories of communities and buildings her ancestors and relatives came from and settled in.

She volunteered and then worked at Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery and for Peterborough Libraries while she studied for A-Levels in History and Sociology to get into university. Other jobs Alexa worked at between 1998 and 2008 include fashion retail, waitressing and catering, conference and events administration, nightclub cloakroom, music retail, bookseller, and copyright music and events licensing, royalty collection and distribution.

first degree

Alexa studied for a bachelors degree in History at the University of Leicester, graduating with a First Class Honours degree and two academic prizes in 2011. She established and ran a student society that still exists 15 years and many student cohorts later! She also developed an interest in Widening Participation and educational outreach, working in that capacity with the fabulous WP and Student Recruitment team at Leicester. As an undergraduate she had Summer jobs in child protection, social housing, and finally student application administration.

postgraduate years

Alexa won an AHRC Research Preparation Masters Scholarship to study MA Contemporary History at the University of Sussex and moved to Brighton to take up that opportunity in 2011. During her Masters, Alexa volunteered and then took up paid work at the Mass Observation Archive and University of Sussex Special Collections.

Alexa’s successful application to the AHRC Doctoral Studentship scheme allowed her to remain at Sussex to study for a PhD in History from 2012. In the History department at Sussex she established The History Forum for postgraduate students and researchers and was active in the School of History, Art History and Philosophy’s research community including Work in Progress Seminars and History Lab. She was employed as Research Assistant on the Observing the 80s project and was acknowledged for that work in academic papers including Professor Lucy Robinson’s Collaboration In, Collaboration Out…

Alexa started teaching at the University of Sussex in 2013, teaching undergraduates and helping design and teach Widening Participation and Access programmes. She undertook teacher training and professional development with the University of Sussex and Higher Education Academy to learn pedagogical principles with a particular interest in accessibility for neurodivergent and disabled students as a member of that community herself.

Alexa was awarded her PhD in History by the University of Sussex in 2016 and, after a short break of only a few months in which she worked as a barista, was successful in her application to work with Professor Lizzie Seal as a Research Fellow on her 2-year project ‘Race and the Death Penalty’. Her Academic CV, Current Research Interests and Publication Record pick up the story/ies from there. For Alexa’s extracurricular interests, see ‘Just for fun’.