Mark Bauerlein

Who is Mark Bauerlein?

Mark Weightman Bauerlein is an English professor at Emory University and the author of 2008 book, The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future, which won the Nautilus Book Award. He serves, in addition, as a Visitor of Ralston College, a start-up liberal arts college in Savannah.

Bauerlein earned his doctorate in English from UCLA in 1988, having completed a thesis on Whitman, under the supervision of Joseph N. Riddel. He has taught at Emory since 1989.

Between 2003 and 2005, Bauerlein worked at the National Endowment for the Arts, serving as the Director of the Office of Research and Analysis. While there, Bauerlein contributed to an NEA study, "Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America."

Bauerlein explains how his experience as a teacher led to his writing of The Dumbest Generation:

Because in my limited experience as a teacher, I’ve noticed in the last 10 years that students are no less intelligent, no less ambitious but there are two big differences: Reading habits have slipped, along with general knowledge. You can quote me on this: You guys don’t know anything.