Dr. Alex Nelson

Alex is a socio-cultural anthropologist at the University of Indianapolis whose research explores transformations in intimate relationships, particularly South Koreans' shifting expectations and experiences of marriage and courtship, and how the internet and public policy shape the entrepreneurial strategies of independent sex workers in the direct and virtual sectors of the commercial sex industry. He conducted extensive ethnographic fieldwork in South Korea exploring Koreans' evolving understandings of love and gender in the context of romantic relationships. He is also a researcher on the Erotic Entrepreneurs Project, an interdisciplinary study of the business strategies of independent online female escorts in the U.S. His most recent project explores racial inequality and ethno-erotic economies in the adult webcam modeling industry.