Alex Billinis

Ph.D. Student

Contact
Department of History
Email: billini@clemson.edu

Education
BSFS, Georgetown (1991); JD, American University (1997); MA, Clemson University (2022)

Research Interests
U.S. History; U.S. 1850-1877; U.S. South; Atlantic World and Capitalism

Alexander Billinis is a PhD candidate in Clemson’s Digital History Program. He is a full-time lecturer in the Political Science Department and Honors College at Clemson University. He is the coordinator for the Dixon Fellows Program in the Clemson Honors College. Prior work experience includes commercial real estate, freelance legal and journalism work, and over a decade as an international banker in the United States and Europe. Proficient in a half dozen languages, Alexander graduated from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in 1991, American University Washington College of Law in 1997, and he completed a master’s degree in history from Clemson University in 2022. His master’s thesis centered on the role of the Greek merchant marine in Greek national identity. A dual citizen of the United States and Greece, Alexander is married with two teenage children.

Alexander’s focus of study will be on the Atlantic World, particularly the cotton economy of the Southern United States. He will highlight the role of Greek cotton merchants in the mid-nineteenth century cotton trade, particularly in New Orleans and other Southern ports, but also in Europe and the Mediterranean, primarily Egypt.