Alexios Tsigkas is a sociocultural anthropologist whose research examines the intersections of aesthetics and economic life. Prior to joining FLAME University he held teaching and research positions at the department of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies (ISEK), University of Zürich and the department of Ethnology, University of Lucerne, Switzerland. He studied anthropology in Athens, where he received a BA degree from Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences; in Paris, as an exchange student; and in New York, earning MA and PhD degrees from The New School for Social Research. 

Alexios' research comprises a sustained examination of taste as an object of anthropological inquiry. Specifically, it asks how taste judgments are made and shared in market contexts and how value is produced through practices of discernment. He has conducted long-term fieldwork in Sri Lanka and his research has been supported by the Social Science Research Council, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, and the American Council of Learned Societies. In the future, he hopes to explore how machine learning and artificial intelligence might reconfigure the judging and sharing of taste and the role of tastemakers and experts.

Alexios has taught various courses across disciplinary boundaries, including anthropology and critical social theory, food studies, cultural studies, and design. His research and teaching interests include economic anthropology, food studies, aesthetics, knowledge production and expertise, with a regional focus on South Asia.

Besides anthropology, he has previously ventured into the artworld: in Athens, he joined the Frissiras Museum for Contemporary European Painting and in 2009 he participated in the 2nd Athens Art Biennial, “Heaven LIVE.” In addition, at The New School, he was a fellow at the Graduate Institute for Design, Ethnography and Social Thought.