Alexis has studied cities,communities and diverse populations from both a planning perspective and from a sociological/anthropological perspective.
Her research and teaching experience could be characterized by a number of features. It has been interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary borrowing from anthropology, Urban planning, urban anthropology, urban sociology and the sociology of development.
For this book, she independently designed and funded research to study the domination, segregation and subordination of foreign labor in Doha Qatar, one of the oil-rich Gulf countries.