UAF adjunct professor and Cordova Times columnist Hank Nuwer is the author of the current Hazing: Destoying Young Lives, best known for his literary journalism, essays, weekly newspaper column, and hazing deaths unofficial clearinghouse/database. He is currently writing a scholarly biography and is on the road away from Alaska conducting research in Bloomington and Indianapolis, Indiana (November and December 2025).
In January-May 2026, Nuwer writes weekly columns for the Cordova Times in Alaska, and teaches two journalism courses and a hazing history continuing education course as an adjunct professor at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. He and wife Malgorzata (Gosia) reside in Fairbanks, Alaska, with additional acres in remote Alaska. They vacation at their homes in rural Poland near Warsaw and Union City, Indiana.
Hank Nuwer began keeping a database about hazing deaths in 1975 and maintains the Hazing Deaths database. The first shorter database appeared in his article (Dead Souls of Hell Week) for Human Behavior magazine in 1978. His investigation of hazing deaths appeared in 1990; the title was Broken Pledges: the Deadly Rite of Hazing.
Hank Nuwer founded and continues to update the Buffalo State University Hazing Collection with BSU archivist Daniel DiLandro. Nuwer’s research and/or books on hazing have been included in articles for the New York Times, Die Zweit, Washington Post, National Public Radio, U.S. News & World Report, CNN, ESPN, Times of India, The Conversation, the Congressional Record, and The Guardian. Video: Georgia Rep. Lucy McBath cites the names on his database as a factor in Joe Biden’s decision to sign a federal hazing law in December of 2024.
His book, Rezvousing with Contemporary Authors, contains interviews with David Mamet, William Least Heat Moon, and many other writers. Many of the interviews were reprinted by other editors in book collections Hank Nuwer‘s most recent hazing publication is his 2025 introduction to “Sport Hazing in the New Millenia.” The book’s editors are Professor Jessica Chin of San Jose State University & Professor Jay (preferred, jay) Johnson of the University of Manitoba {Emerald Press).
In 2023, he was the co-author of “Hazing in Fraternities and Sororities” with Elizabeth Allan in Gender-Based Crime: Learning Through Experts and Cases (edited by Kathleen A. Bogle).
His current book is Hazing: Destroying Young Lives from Indiana University Press.
The Hazing Prevention Network and Northeast Greek Association award annual “Hank Nuwer Awards” to honor individuals and groups doing an outstanding job to stand up despite hardship to educate schools and the public about hazing.
Hank Nuwer has an M.A. from New Mexico Highlands University and a B.S. in English from Buffalo State University. He has an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Buffalo State University and is a 1999 Ball State Distinguished Alumnus. He spoke to graduate students at BSU as a Commencement speaker in 2006 when he received his honorary doctorate.
His papers are collected at the Buffalo State University Butler Library. He now teaches journalism at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, and continues to work on a scholarly biography of Kurt Vonnegut.
Note to the Reader: On June 11, 2025, Hank Nuwer’s Hazing Deaths Database Clearinghouse information also became accessible at HazingInfo.org, where you can access, interact with, and download data on all recorded hazing deaths from 1838 to the present. HazingInfo, the University of Maine, and researcher Hank Nuwer are pleased to announce the partnership that led to the HazingInfo website.
NGLA annual conference: Hank Nuwer Award given.
Hank Nuwer, Hazing Speaker
Awards:
In September 2024, because of his then-49 years working for hazing prevention and hazing education, he received one of the four recognitions by the Alaska Children’s Trust Champions for Kids given individuals who demonstrate dedication and commitment in working to ensure that children and youth are living in safe, supportive, and nurturing communities.
The Alaska Press Club in 2024 and 2025 awarded him its first prize Best Columnist and, in 2024, second place Best Humorist award. The Ohio Society of Professional Journalists named him its Ohio #1 Columnist of 2021. He has also won Society of Professional Journalists. awards for column writing and business writing from the Indiana chapter. In 2025, his former Indiana-based column won first place for commentary from the Hoosier State Press Association.
Hank Nuwer’s latest book “Hazing: Destroying Young Lives,” a collaboration with experts on Greek life and athletics, student affairs and attorneys, is proactive and is all about preventing hazing, recognizing hazing and taking forcible action to eradicate the culture from fraternities, sororities, bands, sports teams and student clubs. It is a companion to his earlier “Hazing Reader” and “Wrongs of Passage.”
Bio:
Hank Nuwer is a scholar whose expertise is hazing education (Hazing, Wrongs of Passage, Hazing Reader). He is also a historical novelist (Sons of the Dawn: A Basque Odyssey), playwright (A Broken Pledge; Death of a Rookie, Beyond Survival) and journalist/social critic known for his many interviews with authors such as Kurt Vonnegut, David Mamet, James Dickey, Harry Crews and Maurice Sendak. His magazine articles have included many adventures such as playing pro baseball with the Montreal Expos in spring training, herding sheep with Basques in rugged Nevada, “training” for the discus with Olympian Al Oerter, skydiving with Hall of Famer Jay Stokes, bullriding in an actual rodeo, and flying Idaho’s unfriendly skies with a back-country pilot
He first wrote about hazing for Human Behavior Magazine in 1975. He now is working on a scholarly biography of Kurt Vonnegut, and, following that completion, a book on hazing in American culture. As a journalist, he also played first base in professional baseball games for the Montreal Expos’ Denver Bears, the old Indianapolis Clowns and the vintage baseball New York Mutuals.
Theater and Fim Acting
His hobbies include stamp collecting, reading international authors, and acting in Alaska theater. He was trained at the Shakespeare Institute where he won a fellowship for his satire “Tricky the First” and played Hal in Henry IV, Part Two, and Flute/Thisbe in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. UB faculty members included actor Morris Carnovsky, scholar Alan Dorner and Michael Kahn.
Most recently, in October and November 2025, he performed as the cagy Inspector Hubbard in Dial “M” for Murder. In the spring of 2025, he played Henry Fatt in the University of Alaska (Fairbanks) musical Strike!, and also in spring 2025, Ed Boone in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night.
In 2023-2024, Hank Nuwer played Santa/Mulch/Wendell in Ken Ludwig’s Twas the Night Before Christmas, Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street, the Old Man in Shakespeare’s King Lear, Prince Escalus in Romeo and Juliet, the Professor in the University of Alaska’s Something in the Living Room, and the Moving Man in Raisin in the Sun.
He also performs one-man plays for hazing education titled “Death of a Rookie” and “A Broken Pledge.”
Classroom Experience and Speaking to College Students
Hank Nuwer taught graduate students in journalism at Ball State University and undergraduate students at Franklin College, Ball State, Anderson University, Clemson University, the University of Richmond and the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. He also taught as a graduate assistant at New Mexico Highlands University and the University of Nevada, Reno. Hank Nuwer was elected to the Ball State Journalism Hall of Fame. He was named a Distinguished Buffalo State Alumnus and is in the Buffalo State Athletic Hall of Fame as a 1967 team member.
Hank Nuwer has given talks on hazing education at well over 120 schools, including the University of Oregon, University of Texas, University of Illinois, Indiana University, Cornell University, University of Pennsylvania, and Dartmouth College. He has lectured on either hazing or his own writing at colleges/universities in Poland, Spain and Canada. He still speaks on rare occasions when not in the classroom.
Organizations
His memberships include Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society, Alpha Lambda Delta Honor Society, Sons of the American Legion, Order of Omega Leadership Society, Western Writers of America, Western American Literature, Investigative Reporters and Editors, Society of Professional Journalists, Biographers International, and the Alaska Press Club.
As Editor
Also at times an editor, most recently he served as managing editor of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (2023). He served as co-editor of the University of Nevada Brushfire, editor-in-chief of Arts Indiana Magazine, and as a senior editor/writer for Rodale Press. He edited the work of/interviews with Norman Mailer, Joyce Carol Oates, William Stafford, Thom Gunn, Josephine Miles and Robert Laxalt while co-editor of Brushfire Magazine, 1973-1975. At Arts Indiana he edited the essays of Susan Neville and Scott Russell Sanders, as well as writing essays himself.
His articles and nonfiction essays have run in Limberlost Review, Brushfire, South Dakota Review, Ball State University Forum, Phi Kappa Phi (honor society) Forum, Men’s Fitness, Arts Indiana Magazine. His book reviews continue to appear in Western American Literature and Forum magazine.
Hank Nuwer was an undergraduate fraternity member at Buffalo State, wrote for the Record Newspaper and played freshman baseball and managed soccer. See BSU Hall of Fame.
See recent articles on Hank Nuwer in Athletic Business and his appearance in the movie Hazing by Byron Hurt.
He has written books on the topic of hazing in society including Hazing: Destroying Young Lives, Wrongs of Passage, High School Hazing, and The Hazing Reader.His book, Rendezvousing with Contemporary Writers, was a grab-bag of interviews with notable persons such as Kurt Vonnegut, Maurice Sendak, James Dickey and david Mamet.
He has contributed articles to The Quill magazine, Limberlost Review and The Conversation. Other bylines of his over the years appeared in the New York Times Sunday Magazine, Santa Fe New Mexican, Orlando Sentinel, Buffalo Courier-Express and other newspapers. He has written books for teens including Sons of the Dawn, High School Hazing, The Legend of Jesse Owens, Steroids and To the Young Writer.
Link to the Buffalo State Hank Nuwer Hazing Collection.
Nuwer’s journalism to eradicate hazing was honored with annual awards in his name by the NGLA and HazingPrevention.org