Bryan Alexander (futurist)
Bryan Alexander | |
|---|---|
_(8863493899).jpg) Bryan Alexander, 2013 | |
| Born | February 1967 New York City |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | University of Michigan |
| Occupation(s) | Futurist, author |
| Spouse | Ceredwyn Alexander |
| Website | https://bryanalexander.org/ |
 | A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject. (July 2024) |
Bryan Alexander is an American futurist and author who is a Georgetown University Senior Scholar and the creator of The Future of Higher Education Observatory. Alexander was one of the first experts to envision the peak in US higher education enrollment[1] and is a contributor to the academic and popular culture conversation about higher education.[2][3][4][5]
Early life and education
[edit] |
Bryan Alexander was born and raised in New York City. He earned his bachelors, masters, and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Michigan. He began his career as an assistant professor of English at Centenary College of Louisiana before moving to Vermont to lead the Center of Educational Technology at Middlebury College. He then worked for the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education (NITLE) as a senior director.
Career
[edit]In 2013, Alexander began an independent consultancy as a higher education futurist.[citation needed]
Alexander lived in rural Vermont in a house that used woodstoves for heat, for which he chopped and split wood. He adopted aspects of a homesteader or "prepper" lifestyle during this time. In 2018, 'Ozy' magazine referred to him as an "Ax-Wielding Futurist".[6]
One of Alexander's ideas is about the "academic queen sacrifice." Alexander argues that US higher education has been reducing the numbers and the power of academic workers, and this puts higher education in peril.[7]
Since 2016, Alexander has been hosting Future Trends Forum, a video conversation about the future of higher education.[8]
Writing
[edit]In Academia Next (2020), Alexander's work written before the COVID-19 pandemic, he describes the possibilities and challenges of a pandemic upon higher education.[9] Alexander is one of nine members on Association of Professional Futurists (APF) international board.[10] Academia Next covers several trends including demographic transition, escalating economic inequality, rising campus costs and student debt, open education (OER, open access), increasing multimedia tools, platforms, content, creativity, and rising automation. The book received an award from the Association of Professional Futurists (APF) in 2020.[11][12] Academia Next, written in 2018 and published in January 2020, included a pandemic scenario, presaging the COVID-19 pandemic.
Universities on Fire was published by Johns Hopkins University Press in March 2023. Alexander examines human-induced climate change as a major factor reshaping colleges and universities.[13] The book is a "conversation about the future of higher education through the lenses of extreme weather, energy transitions and institutional resilience"[14] with a "simple message: The climate crisis is real, there are fires everywhere, and 'it is up to us to choose if those will be flames of destruction or the lights of illumination.'”[15]
External links
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Thelin, John (2019). A History of American Higher Education (3rd ed.). Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 400. ISBN 9781421428833.
- ^ Harris, Adam (5 June 2018). "Here's How Higher Education Dies". www.theatlantic.com. The Atlantic. Retrieved 22 May 2021.
- ^ "How the Pandemic Could Transform Higher Ed". www.wsj.com. Retrieved 22 May 2021.
- ^ "Can Colleges And Universities Survive The Pandemic?". www.npr.org. National Public Radio. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
- ^ "Bryan Alexander". www.scup.org. Society for College and University Planning. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
- ^ George, Lorenzo. "The Ax-Wielding Futurist Swinging for a Higher Ed Tech Revolution". Ozy.
- ^ Paquette, Gabriel. "Can Higher Ed Save Itself? Business as usual won't solve the existential challenges we face. Will anything?". www.chronicle.com. Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
- ^ Young, Jeffrey R. (April 2020). "What Students Want Colleges to Know About COVID-19 Shutdowns". www.edsurge.com. Ed Surge. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
- ^ Delbanco, Andrew (7 February 2022). "The University Crisis Does the pandemic mark a breaking point?". www.thenation.com. The Nation. Retrieved 9 February 2022.
- ^ "APF Board". apf.org. APF. Retrieved 22 May 2021.
- ^ Alexander, Bryan (2020). Academia Next: The Futures of Higher Education (1st ed.). Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 23. ISBN 978-1421436425.
- ^ "Most Significant Futures Works". www.apf.org. Association of Professional Futurists. Retrieved 22 May 2021.
- ^ "'Universities on Fire' with Bryan Alexander". www.kenyon.edu/. Kenyon University. 2 February 2022. Retrieved 9 February 2022.
- ^ Kim, Joshua. "Persuading Bryan Alexander (and Maybe You) to Read 'The Skeptics' Guide to the Future'". www.insidehighered.com. Inside Higher Education. Retrieved 22 December 2022.
- ^ Wright, Donald (5 July 2023). "'Universities on Fire' is brisk, inspiring and sobering". Yale Climate Connections. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
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