Siena College
05/08/2026 | News release | Distributed by Public on 05/08/2026 11:40
The Untold Story of... Joshua Alexander, Ph.D.
- I was born in Sherman Park, a wonderful, progressive neighborhood on the west side of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. My parents, who were "retired hippies," raised my brother and me in the arts, sending us both to schools for the performing arts, where I learned to dance and was in a number of musicals growing up. I can still remember most of my ballet positions.
- In addition to the arts, I spent much of my childhood outside playing a variety of sports. While I'd like to say that I was a gifted athlete, mostly what I was good at was injuring myself. I broke a hand playing baseball when I was 12, broke a wrist skateboarding when I was 13, broke an ankle playing soccer when I was 14, tore the ligaments in my right knee playing soccer when I was 15, and tore them again playing soccer when I was 16. That was it for me and sports.
- I went to Marquette University, where I intended to study biology on my way to becoming a physician - because, after all, I'd spent enough time with my orthopedic doctor as a teen, but found myself much more interested in playing music into the wee hours of the morning than waking up early to go to chemistry labs. I liked to read a lot, and that didn't interfere with playing music, and so I became an English major - my favorite authors were Hemingway, Vonnegut, and the poet Robert Creeley.
- Speaking of playing music, I was in a series of really good bands with really bad names: Dean's Groove Machine, Rex Frenzy and the Frantics, and Autonomous Clam. I'd like to think that this is because all of the good band names (The Beatles, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones) had already been taken, but I think that my bandmates and I just weren't very good at coming up with band names. I did once play a show for about 1000 people in Madison, Wisconsin, though, and that was cool. (I also played quite a few shows for like 10 people, too, so it all comes out in the wash.)
- During my senior year in college, I took a logic class and that changed everything. My parents generously let me stay in college a little longer than anyone expected so that I could add a philosophy major, and I went to graduate school to study logic, first at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and later at Indiana University. Fun fact: My father's thesis advisor at UWM was also one of my professors when I was in graduate school, and remembered my father walking me up and down the departmental hallway saying "Cogito, ergo sum" as a four- or five-year-old.
- I've very happily been at Siena for 18 years, mostly teaching in the philosophy department. I work in an area called "experimental philosophy" where we use methods from the social and cognitive sciences to study how our minds work when we think about philosophical issues. I've published two books about experimental philosophy, and my research has taken me to some amazing places, including two of my favorite places in the world: Catalina Island off of the coast of California and Lake Bled in Slovenia.
- Speaking of favorite places… I love the water, most especially, the Pacific Ocean and Lake Michigan, and have been lucky enough to spend lots of time with my most favorite people in the world - my wife, Theresa, who is curator at the Shaker Heritage Society, and our two boys, Donovan and Benjamin - living next to these two bodies of water. We spent a semester living on the beaches of Costa Rica when the boys were very small, and try to spend as much time on the shores of Lake Michigan each summer as we can!
- My family now lives on a small farm (Stony Point Farm) in Castleton, NY, where we primarily raise chickens, with occasional mammalian barn guests, including sheep and pigs. A big change for a kid who grew up in the city, and lived most of his early adult life in college towns before settling in a quiet urban neighborhood in Albany. But COVID made us want more space for our kids to run around, and being able to wake up each day to the sounds of farm animals is pretty amazing.
- When I am not at Siena, you can find me playing mandolin in a local Americana band - The Pine Hills Band - named for the neighborhood in Albany that we lived in before moving to the country. (Finally, a good band name!) We released our first album ("Fourth Time's the Charm") a couple of years ago, play around the region, and were even nominated for a local "grammy" award (what are called "The Eddies") last year.
- Hmm. Ten interesting things is hard. Oh, I like pizza.
Siena College published this content on May 08, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on May 08, 2026 at 17:40 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]