![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dactylfoundation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/room2sm-143x150.jpg\" "\\"VNA\\"")
Director of Public Programs (1996-2011), Editor Dactyl Review<\/em> (2010-present) <\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\nVictoria N. Alexander earned her Ph.D. in English at the Graduate Center, City University New York and did her dissertation research in teleology, evolutionary theory, and complexity science at the Santa Fe Institute. <\/span><\/span> She is a novelist (<\/span>Smoking Hopes, Naked Singularity<\/em>,\u00a0Locus Am\u0153nus <\/em>and The Girlie Playhouse<\/em>).<\/span> 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\u00a0Dissertation (GC, CUNY), the Washington Prize for Fiction (<\/span>Smoking Hopes<\/em><\/span>) <\/span>Dallas Observer<\/em><\/span>‘s “Best of 2003” (<\/span>Naked Singularity<\/em><\/span>) and the Literary Fiction Book Review<\/em> award (Locus Am\u0153nus).<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n Alexander served <\/span><\/span><\/span>a Public Scholar for the New York Council for the Humanities 2015-2018 and a Fulbright Scholar to Russia 2020.<\/p>\r\n <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n Education<\/strong><\/p>\r\n Ph.D., English, The Graduate Center, City University New York. Dissertation title: Narrative Telos: The Ordering Tendencies of Chance.<\/em> Fields of specialization: Narrative Theory, Philosophy of Science, and 20th Century Novels. Passed Oral Examinations with Academic Distinction.<\/p>\r\n Publications–Theory\/Criticism\/Reviews<\/strong><\/p>\r\n 2027 \u201cThe Source of Novelty: Exploring semiotic and poetic mechanisms in biological systems,\u201d Leonardo Journal MIT<\/i> Press<\/a>. Leonardo Volume 60, Issue 1 (February)<\/span><\/p>\r\n 2023\u00a0 \u201cSelf-Reinforcing Cycles and Mistakes: The emergence of subjective meaning<\/a>\u201d In Pathways to the Origin and Evolution of Meanings in the Universe<\/em>. Astrobiology Perspectives on Life of the Universe series. Eds. R. Gordon, J. Seckbach, A. Sharov. Wiley-Scrivener, forthcoming in December.<\/p>\r\n 2023 “The Creativity of Cells: Aneural Irrational Cognition<\/a>,” The Journal of Physiology<\/em>, special issue on The Physiology of Evolution, edited by Denis Noble.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n 2022 “When the immune system makes the wrong choice between incompatible options,” Tunne loodust! <\/em>Knowing Nature in the Languages of Biosemiotics<\/em>. In Epistemologica et historiographica linguistica Lausannensia No 4, Eds. Donald Favareau and Ekaterina Velmezova. Universite\u0301 de Lausanne<\/span><\/p>\r\n 2022\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00ab\u0421\u043b\u0443\u0447\u0430\u0439\u043d\u043e\u0441\u0442\u044c \u0438 \u0446\u0435\u043b\u044c\u00bb \u041c\u0435\u0442\u043e\u0434\u0438\u043a\u0430: \u041c\u043e\u0441\u043a\u043e\u0432\u0441\u043a\u0438\u0439 \u0435\u0436\u0435\u0433\u043e\u0434\u043d\u0438\u043a \u0441\u043e\u0446\u0438\u0430\u043b\u044c\u043d\u044b\u0445 \u0438\u0441\u0441\u043b\u0435\u0434\u043e\u0432\u0430\u043d\u0438\u0439. \u0420\u0435\u0434. \u041c\u0438\u0445\u0430\u0438\u043b \u0418\u043b\u044c\u0438\u043d \u0438 \u0418\u0432\u0430\u043d \u0424\u043e\u043c\u0438\u043d. \u201cChance and Purpose,\u201d In Method: Moscow Yearbook of Social Studies<\/em>. Eds. Mikhail Ilyin and Ivan Fomin,\u00a0<\/p>\r\n 2021\u00a0 \u00a0 with J. Augustus Bacigalupi, “Creative Agency Via Higher-Dimensional Constraints.” <\/i><\/i><\/i><\/i>Biosemiotics<\/i>\u00a0 https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s12304-021-09418-y<\/p>\r\n 2021\u00a0 \u00a0with J. Augustus Bacigalupi and Oscar Castro Garcia, “Living systems are smarter bots: Slime mold semiosis versus AI symbol manipulation<\/a>\u2028,” BioSystems 206, <\/em>in press. 2021 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “Free-Range Humans: Permaculture Farming as a Biosemiosic Model for Political Organization<\/a>,” In Food and Medicine: A Biosemiotic Perspective<\/em>. Eds V. Y. Hendlin and J. Hope. Springer, 115-137.<\/p>\r\n 2019\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “AI, Stereotyping on Steroids and Alan Turing\u2019s Biological Turn,\u201d In The Democratization of Artificial Intelligence: Net Politics in the Era of Learning Algorithms.<\/a><\/em> Ed., Andreas Sudmann. Bielefeld, Germany: transcript.<\/p>\r\n 2019 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “The Mechanism for Mimicry: Instant Biosemiotic Selection or Gradual Darwinian Fine-Tuning Selection?<\/a>” Timo Maran and Karel Kleisner, eds. Biosemiotics<\/em>, 7<\/em>(3) 329-334.<\/p>\r\n 2018\/2019 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “Siri fails the Turing Test: Computation, Biosemiosis and Artificial Life,”\u00a0 Researches Semiotique\/Semiotic Inquiry<\/em>, 38<\/em>(3)\/39<\/em> (1-2), 231-249.<\/p>\r\n 2017 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 with Valerie Grimes,\u00a0 “Fluid Biosemiotic Mechanisms Underlie Subconscious Habits<\/a>” Biosemiotics <\/em>10(3) 337\u2013353<\/span>.<\/p>\r\n 2017\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “The Art of Reciprocity and the Work of Don Favareau” in Biosemiotics in the community: Essays in honour of Donald Favareau<\/a>.<\/em> Kalevi Kull and Paul Cobley, eds. Tartu University Press, 75-77.<\/p>\r\n 2017\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 with Kenneth Gross, Lindsay Waters,\u00a0 Paul Auster, Harold Bloom, Stanley Fish, K. J. Knoespel, Mitchell Meltzer, Victoria Nelson, Joan Richardson, Dorion Sagan, Susan Stewart, Eric Wilson, Michael Wood. “A Florilegium for Angus Fletcher<\/a>,” Los Angeles Review of Books.<\/em> Feb 12. 2016 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0“Chance, Nature\u2019s Practical Jokes, and the \u201cNon-utilitarian Delights\u201d of Butterfly Mimicry,”\u00a0Fine Lines: Vladimir Nabokov’s Scientific Art<\/a>.<\/em> Eds. Stephen Blackwell and Kurt Johnson. New Haven: Yale University Press.<\/p>\r\n 2016 \u00a0 \u00a0 “Papillons et feuilles mortes : une approche bios\u00e9miotique de la mimesis chez Nabokov<\/a>” Fabula: et recherche en litterature<\/em>. Paris, France. Translated by Pierre\u2013Louis Patoine.<\/p>\r\n 2014 \u00a0 \u00a0 “Nabokov, teleologie a hmyzi mimeze,”\u00a0Kr\u00e1sa a zv\u00ed\u0159e.<\/a><\/em> Studie o vztahu estetick\u00fdch a etick\u00fdch hodnot zv\u00ed\u0159at<\/a>. <\/em>Eds. Ond\u0159ej Dadej\u00edk, Filip Jaro\u0161, Martin Kaplick\u00fd. Prague, Czech Republic: Dokoran, 2015. Translation of “Nabokov,Teleology, and Insect Mimicry” by\u00a0Silvie Liskova and Martin Radl.<\/p>\r\n 2014 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0“Toward a Definition of \u00a0Biosemiosic Chance,” in a special issue of Biosemiotics<\/em><\/a>. VN Alexander, editor, with papers by Gennaro Auletta and Lluc Torcal,\u00a0Stanley Salthe,\u00a0Gerald Ostdiek,\u00a0James Coffman, and\u00a0Wendy Wheeler.<\/p>\r\n 2014 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0“How does Cognition come from Chance?” in\u00a0Charles S.<\/a><\/em> Peirce in his own Words: 100 years of Semiotics, Communication and Cognition<\/a>.<\/em> Semiotic, Communication, and Cognition.\u00a0Edited by Torkild Thellefsen and Bent Sorensen.Walter de Gruyter.<\/p>\r\n 2013 \u00a0\u00a0 “Creativity: Self-referential Mistaking, Not Negating<\/a>,”\u00a0Biosemiotics <\/em>6(2): 253-272.<\/p>\r\n 2012\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “Chance,” in A More Developed Sign: Advancing the Work of Jesper Hoffmeyer.<\/em> Edited by Donald Favareau et al<\/em>. Tartu Semiotics Library 10. Tartu: Tartu University Press.<\/p>\r\n 2011 \u00a0 \u00a0 Review of Essential Readings in Biosemiotics: Anthology and Commentary<\/em> by Donald Favareau. The Journal of Applied Philosophy<\/a> <\/em>28 (4)\u00a0412-414..<\/em><\/p>\r\n 2011 \u00a0 \u00a0 The Biologist’s Mistress: Rethinking Self-Organization in Art, Literature and Nature<\/a><\/em>.<\/a> Emergent Publications<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n 2010 \u00a0 \u00a0 Review of <\/a>Death and Sex<\/a><\/em> by Tyler Volk and Dorion Sagan. New York Journal of Books.<\/em><\/p>\r\n 2010\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 with Stanley Salthe, “Monstrous Fate: The Problem of Authorship and Evolution by Natural Selection<\/a>,” Annals of Scholarship<\/em> 19 (1): 45-66.<\/p>\r\n 2009\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “The Poetics of Purpose<\/a>,” Biosemiotics <\/em>2(1) (2009): 77-100.<\/p>\r\n 2008\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “The (Re)emergence of Language in Art,” Dialogues<\/em>, New York: Jan Krugier Gallery.<\/p>\r\n 2007 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Review of Wendy Wheeler’s.<\/a> The Whole Creature: Complexity, Biosemiotics and the Evolution of Culture<\/em><\/a>. Configurations <\/em>14 (2007): 185-188.<\/p>\r\n 2006 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 “C. S.<\/a> Peirce’s Theory of Self-Organization and The Crying of Lot 49<\/a>,” Pynchon Notes<\/em> 52-53 (2006): 23-39.<\/span><\/p>\r\n 2005\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “Hopeful Monsters: Literary Teleology and Emergence<\/a>” Emergence:Complexity & Organization<\/em> 7 (2005): 95-104.<\/p>\r\n 2004 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Review of Angus Fletcher’s New Theory for American Poetry<\/em>, in Style <\/em>39 (2004): 501-505.<\/span><\/p>\r\n 2003\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0“<\/a>Nabokov,Teleology, and Insect Mimicry,<\/a>” Nabokov Studies<\/em> 7 (2003): 177-213.<\/span> Figures.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\r\n 2002\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Review of Brian Boyd’s Nabokov’s Pale Fire and the Magic of Artistic Discovery<\/span>,\u00a0 in Antioch Review<\/em> 60 (Summer 2002): <\/span> 530-531.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n 2001\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0“Neutral Evolution and Aesthetics: Vladimir Nabokov and Insect Mimicry<\/span><\/a><\/span>,” Working Papers Series 01-10-057<\/span> (Santa\u00a0 Fe:<\/span> Santa Fe Institute, 2001).<\/span><\/p>\r\n 1999\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “Polonius and Poland, a Coincidence<\/a>,” English Language Notes<\/em> 36 (1999): 8-13.<\/span><\/p>\r\n 1999\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “Indeterminacy Revisited,” zingmagazine<\/em> 5 (1999): 33-38.<\/span><\/p>\r\n 1997\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “Louis Begley: Trying to Make Sense of It,<\/span>“<\/span><\/span> Antioch Review<\/em> 55 (1997): 292-304<\/span>.<\/p>\r\n 1994 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 “<\/span>Martin Amis: Between the Influences of Bellow and Nabokov<\/span><\/span><\/a>,”<\/span> Antioch Review<\/em> 52 (1994): 580-590. reprinted in Contemporary<\/span> Literary Criticism 101, ed.<\/span> Deborah Stanley (Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1997), 78-83.<\/span><\/p>\r\n Publications–Literary <\/strong><\/p>\r\n 2026\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 The Girlie Playhouse<\/em><\/a>, a novel, Heresy Press.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n 2026\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 with Michael Levin, “Animism,” short sci-fic, Interconnections:<\/a> Journal of Posthumanism<\/em>.<\/p>\r\n 2022\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u201cThe Narrative\u201d and \u201cSigns and Symbols,\u201d short fiction, The Strange Recital.<\/i><\/i><\/i><\/i><\/i><\/i><\/i><\/i><\/span><\/p>\r\n 2020\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 “The Walk” and “Winter Flies” (reprint), short fiction, The Strange Recital<\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\r\n 2020\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 “Chance that Mimics Choice,” Pangyrus LitMag<\/em><\/p>\r\n 2019\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 “Winter Flies,” The Antioch Review<\/em><\/p>\r\n 2015 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Locus Am\u0153nus<\/a><\/em> (The Permanent Press, 2015.)<\/p>\r\n 2003 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Naked Singularity<\/em><\/a> (The Permanent Press, 2003).<\/span><\/p>\r\n 2000 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 “S,” murmur\u00a0 2 (2000): 142-143.<\/span><\/p>\r\n 1997 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 “The Bird Girl,” Texas Short Stories<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/span> (Browder Springs, 1997), 364-373.<\/span><\/p>\r\n 1996 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Smoking Hopes<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/a> (The Permanent Press<\/a>, 1996).<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n Honors and Awards<\/strong><\/p>\r\n 2018\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Terrordise semi-finalist Edinburgh International ; finalist Socially Relevant Film Fest.<\/p>\r\n 2017\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Terrordise semi-finalist Austin Revolution Film Fest; and finalist Park City Int\u2019l Film Fest.<\/p>\r\n 2016\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Terrordise<\/em> nominated for Best Screenplay at The ModCon London Film Festival<\/p>\r\n 2016\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Locus Amoenus <\/em>nominated for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize<\/p>\r\n 2016\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 Excellence in Literary Fiction, Literary Fiction Book Review<\/em> for Locus Amoenus<\/em><\/p>\r\n 2015\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Public Scholar, New York Council for the Humanities<\/p>\r\n 2003 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0“Best of 2003” Dallas Observer<\/em> award for Naked Singularity<\/em><\/p>\r\n 2002 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Alfred Kazin Award for Best Dissertation, English Department, Graduate Center, CUNY.<\/p>\r\n 2001\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Scholar in Residence, Rockefeller Foundation Study and Conference Center<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a>, Bellagio, Italy<\/p>\r\n 2001 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Dissertation Fellowship, Jewish Foundation for the Education of Women, NY, NY<\/p>\r\n 2001 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Writer in Residence, Art & Science Laboratory<\/span>, Santa Fe, NM<\/p>\r\n
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