Mark Bauerlein
Mark Weightman Bauerlein (born 1959) is an English professor at Emory University and senior editor of "First Things" journal. He serves, in addition, as a visitor of Ralston College, a start-up liberal arts college in Savannah. Early life and education. Bauerlein earned his doctorate in English from UCLA in 1988, having completed a thesis on poet Walt Whitman under the supervision of Joseph N. Riddel. Career. Bauerlein has taught at Emory University since 1989. Between 2003 and 2005, he 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". Work. Bauerlein's books include "Literary Criticism: An Autopsy" (1997) and "The Pragmatic Mind: Explorations in the Psychology of Belief" (1997). He is also the author of the 2008 book "The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Or, Don't Trust Anyone Under 30)", which won the Nautilus Book Award. Bauerlein explains how his experience as a teacher led to his writing of "The Dumbest Generation": Apart from his scholarly work, he publishes in  popular periodicals such as "Chronicle of Higher Education", "The Washington Post", "The Wall Street Journal", "The Weekly Standard" and "The Times Literary Supplement". Personal life. In 2012, Bauerlein announced his conversion to Catholicism. He has described himself as an "educational conservative,” while he socially and politically identifies as being "pretty ... libertarian", according to an interview conducted by "Reason" magazine. He endorsed Donald Trump in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Bauerlein has an identical twin brother.