Bryan Alexander is an American

futurist Futurists (also known as futurologists, prospectivists, foresight practitioners and horizon scanners) are people whose specialty or interest is futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities abou ...

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

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 and is a key contributor to the academic and popular culture conversation about higher education. Alexander hosts the Future Trends Forum that invites thought leaders to discuss technology and culture in higher education. He writes and speaks extensively about

global climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

social networking A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for an ...

digital literacy Digital literacy refers to an individual's ability to find, evaluate, and communicate information through typing and other media on various digital platforms. It is evaluated by an individual's grammar, composition, typing skills and ability to pro ...

digital storytelling Digital storytelling is a short form of digital media production that allows everyday people to create and share their stories online. The method is frequently used in schools, museums, libraries, social work and health settings, and communities. ...

mobile learning M-learning or mobile learning is "learning across multiple contexts, through social and content interactions, using personal electronic devices". A form of distance education, m-learners use mobile device educational technology at their convenienc ...

, and emerging technology in higher education and is the author of ''Academia Next: The Futures of Higher Education.'' Bryan Alexander's upcoming book is ''Universities on Fire: Higher Education in the Age of Climate Crisis.''

Early life and career

Bryan Alexander was born and raised in New York City. He earned his bachelors, masters, and Ph.D. degrees from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. He began his career as an Assistant Professor of English at

Centenary College of Louisiana Centenary College of Louisiana is a private liberal arts college in Shreveport, Louisiana. The college is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Founded in 1825, it is the oldest chartered liberal arts college west of the Mississippi Rive ...

before moving to

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

to lead the Center of Educational Technology at

Middlebury College Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college in Middlebury, Vermont. Founded in 1800 by Congregationalists, Middlebury was the first operating college or university in Vermont. The college currently enrolls 2,858 undergraduates from all ...

. He then worked for many years for the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education (NITLE) as a senior director. In 2013, Mr. Alexander began his independent consultancy as a higher education futurist. Bryan Alexander Futurist California Polytechnic State University 2015

Bryan Alexander Futurist California Polytechnic State University 2015

Alexander lived for many years in rural Vermont in a house that used woodstoves for heat, for which he chopped and split wood. He adopted aspects of a

homesteader Homestead may refer to: *Homestead (buildings), a farmhouse and its adjacent outbuildings; by extension, it can mean any small cluster of houses * Homestead (unit), a unit of measurement equal to 160 acres * Homestead principle, a legal concept ...

or "

prepper Survivalism is a social movement of individuals or groups (called survivalists or preppers) who proactively prepare for emergencies, such as natural disasters, as well as other disasters causing disruption to social order (that is, civil disord ...

" lifestyle during this time. In 2018 'Ozy' magazine referred to him as an "Ax-Wielding Futurist" In Academia Next (2020), Alexander's work, written before the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

pandemic described the possibilities and challenges of a pandemic upon higher education. In 2021, Alexander contributed a chapter to the book Media, Technology and Education in a Post-Truth Society: From

Fake News Fake news is false or misleading information presented as news. Fake news often has the aim of damaging the reputation of a person or entity, or making money through advertising revenue.Schlesinger, Robert (April 14, 2017)"Fake news in reality ...

, Datafication and Mass Surveillance to the Death of Trust. Bryan Alexander Bill McKibben Mark Rush 9 3 22

Alexander is currently one of nine members on

Association of Professional Futurists The Association of Professional Futurists (APF) was founded in 2002 to validate the competencies of emerging futurists. As analysts, speakers, managers or consultants, APF's credentialed members cultivate strategic foresight for their organizations ...

(APF) international board.

Key ideas

One of Alexander's most salient ideas is about the "academic

queen sacrifice In chess, a queen sacrifice is a move that sacrifices a queen in return for some compensation, such as a tactical or positional advantage. Queen sacrifice: real versus sham In his book ''The Art of Sacrifice in Chess'', Rudolf Spielmann distin ...

." Alexander argues that US higher education has been reducing the numbers and the power of academic workers, and this puts higher education in peril.

Future Trends Forum

Since 2016, Bryan Alexander has been hosting Future Trends Forum, an open video conversation about the future of higher education. Each week, Alexander has a different guest: "an inspiring expert, visionary, practitioner, or researcher – discussing their area of interest." Audience members are encouraged to ask questions and in some cases go on stage with the guest. Future Trends Forum guests have included

Anya Kamenetz Anya Kamenetz (born September 15, 1980) is an American writer living in Brooklyn, New York City. She is an education correspondent for NPR, a former staff writer for ''Fast Company'' magazine, and columnist for Tribune Media Services, and the ...

Cory Doctorow Cory Efram Doctorow (; born July 17, 1971) is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who served as co-editor of the blog ''Boing Boing''. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of ...

, Terri Givens, and

John Katzman John Katzman (born October 10, 1959) is an American EdTech pioneer. He has established a number of companies which assist students with their studies and career choices, including Princeton Review, 2U (company), 2U, and Noodle Partners. The last tw ...

''Academia Next:The Futures of Higher Education''

Academia Next: The Futures of Higher Education covers several trends including: demographic transition, escalating

economic inequality There are wide varieties of economic inequality, most notably income inequality measured using the distribution of income (the amount of money people are paid) and wealth inequality measured using the distribution of wealth (the amount of we ...

, rising campus costs and

student debt Student debt is a form of debt that is owed by an attending, formerly withdrawn, or graduated student to a lending institution, or to a financial institution. The amount that is loaned, often referred to as a ''student loan'' or the debts may be ...

, open education (OER, open access), increasing multimedia tools, platforms, content, creativity, and rising

automation Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, namely by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machines ...

. It also covers alternate scenarios including, Health Care Nation, Peak Higher Education, Renaissance, and the Retro Campus. The book received an award from the

(APF) in 2020. Academia Next, written in 2018 and published in January 2020, included a pandemic scenario, presaging the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

''Universities on Fire:Higher Education in the Age of Climate Crisis''

Universities on Fire is scheduled for publication by Johns Hopkins University Press in March 2023. Alexander examines human-induced

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

as a major factor reshaping colleges and universities.According to Joshua Kim at Inside Higher Education, the book "will be a conversation about the future of higher education through the lenses of extreme weather, energy transitions and institutional resilience."

External links

Bryan Alexander.orgFuture Trends Forum

References

Place of birth missing (living people) Living people American futurologists American non-fiction writers 1967 births {{US-nonfiction-writer-stub