Alexandre White

I received  a B.A. in Black Studies from Amherst College, an MSc. in Sociology from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a PhD in Sociology from Boston University.

 My work examines the social effects of infectious epidemic outbreaks in both historical and contemporary settings as well as the global mechanisms that produce responses to outbreak. My published work in the field has demonstrated how differences in the perceived threat of deadly diseases have provoked anomalous responses to outbreaks. My first book,  Epidemic Orientalism: Race, Capital and the Governance of Infectious Disease (2023) from Stanford University Press explores the historical roots of international responses to epidemic threats. I have published  in social science journals on the topics of racism, slavery and medicine including in the journals, Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, Theory and Society and Social Science History. I am the editor of the volume Global Historical Sociology of Race and Racism and has published in medical journals such as the British Medical Journal, the New England Journal of Medicine and the Lancet.

My current work with the Mellon-funded project Black Beyond Data has resulted in the creation of Underwriting Souls. This project aims to contextualize our understanding of a particular archive of slavery, one centered on the financial systems that formed and maintained the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade until its demise in the British Empire in 1807.