Alexandra Nur received her doctoral degree in criminology from the Pennsylvania State University, and her bachelor's degree in Criminology, Law & Society/Psychology & Social Behavior from the University of California, Irvine. Her work focuses broadly on the successes and failures of correctional institutions such as jails and prisons, and the experiences of incarcerated persons as they relate to later success in the community. She also studies the economic impact of criminal justice contact with a focus on barriers to stable employment in early adulthood.

Nur's dissertation employed the use of administrative data from Pennsylvania State Correctional Institutions to better understand the barriers to prison program success. She has been published in Justice Quarterly, Crime & Delinquency, and the Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice.