Fredrik deBoer

DeBoer earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in English at Central Connecticut State University, Master of Arts degree in writing and rhetoric at the University of Rhode Island, and Doctor of Philosophy degree in English at Purdue University.{{Cite web|title=Fredrik deBoer|url=http://newamerica.org/our-people/fredrik-deboer/|access-date=2021-08-12|website=New America}} His dissertation was titled The CLA+ and the Two Cultures: Writing Assessment and Educational Testing.{{Cite thesis|last=Deboer|first=Fredrik B.|date=May 2015|title=The CLA+ and the Two Cultures: Writing Assessment and Educational Testing|type=PhD thesis|url=https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations/1358|publisher=Purdue University}}

DeBoer identifies himself as a "Marxist of an old-school variety".{{Cite web|last=DeBoer|first=Freddie|title=What is this place?|url=https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/about|access-date=2021-08-12 |website=freddiedeboer.substack.com|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211011173309/https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/about|archive-date=2021-10-11}}

DeBoer has written for magazines, newspapers and websites.{{Cite magazine|title=Articles by Fredrik deBoer |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/author/fredrik-deboer/|access-date=2021-08-12|magazine=Foreign Policy}}{{Cite magazine|title=Articles by Fredrik deBoer|url=https://www.currentaffairs.org/author/fredrik-deboer|access-date=2021-08-12|magazine=Current Affairs}}{{Cite web|title=Freddie deBoer|url=https://www.salon.com/writer/freddie_deboer|access-date=2021-08-12|work=Salon.com}}{{Cite web|date=2020-06-24|title=Published Work|url=https://fredrikdeboer.com/published-work/|access-date=2021-08-12|website=Fredrik deBoer}} Topics include American education policy, cancel culture, and police reform.{{Cite web|last=Homan|first=Timothy R.|date=2020-08-02|title=Author Fredrik DeBoer calls for rethinking the push to prioritize college|url=https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/509986-author-fredrik-deboer-calls-for-rethinking-the-push-to-prioritize-college|access-date=2021-08-17|newspaper=The Hill}}{{Cite magazine|last=Callard|first=Agnes|author-link=Agnes Callard|date=2020-09-08|title=A More Perfect Meritocracy|url=http://bostonreview.net/class-inequality-philosophy-religion/agnes-callard-more-perfect-meritocracy|access-date=2021-08-17|magazine=Boston Review}} He was the communications editor for Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy until 2017.{{Cite web|date=2017-08-24|title=Index of issue 22.1 (Fall 2017) – Kairos Staff|magazine=Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy|url=http://kairos.technorhetoric.net/|access-date=2021-08-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170824075554/http://kairos.technorhetoric.net/|archive-date=August 24, 2017}}

DeBoer's book, The Cult of Smart, was published in 2020 by All Points Books.{{Cite web|title=The Cult of Smart – Fredrik deBoer|url=https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250200372/the-cult-of-smart|access-date=2021-08-16|website=US Macmillan}} Gideon Lewis-Kraus, writing for The New Yorker, says the book "argues that the education-reform movement has been trammelled by its willful ignorance of genetic variation." Lewis-Kraus groups deBoer with "hereditarian left" authors such as Kathryn Paige Harden and Eric Turkheimer in their shared emphasis on the importance of recognizing the heritability of intelligence when formulating social policy.{{cite magazine |last1=Lewis-Kraus |first1=Gideon |title=Can Progressives Be Convinced that Genetics Matters? |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/09/13/can-progressives-be-convinced-that-genetics-matters |access-date=September 16, 2021|magazine=The New Yorker|date=September 3, 2021}} Nathan J. Robinson, the editor-in-chief of the left-wing, progressive Current Affairs, vehemently disputed the accuracy of deBoer's position, saying "the central argument of the book is not just wrong, but wrong in the strongest possible sense of that term."{{cite magazine|last1=Robinson |first1=Nathan J. |author1-link=Nathan J. Robinson |title=We Don't Know Our Potential|url=https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2020/09/we-dont-know-our-potential |access-date=September 16, 2021|magazine=Current Affairs|date=September 20, 2020}} His next book critical to individuals and institutions taking advantage of Black Lives Matter, How Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement (his preferred title being No Justice, No Peace, No Progress),[https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2023/10/17/how-elites-captured-the-social-justice-movement How elites captured the social justice movement|On Point - WBUR][https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/how-elites-ate-the-social-justice-movement-review-left-against-itself-ca60a317 'How Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement' Review: Left Against Itself - The Wall Street Journal] was published in 2023.

DeBoer has been a teacher at both high school and college level.

DeBoer has written publicly about his struggle with bipolar disorder.[https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/five-years-in-recovery Five Years in Recovery - Freddie DeBoer]

• {{cite book|author=Fredrik deBoer|author-mask=0|year=2020|title=The Cult of Smart: How Our Broken Education System Perpetuates Social Injustice|publisher=All Points Books, an imprint of St. Martin's Publishing Group|isbn=9781250200372|ref=none}}
• {{cite book|author=Fredrik deBoer|author-mask=0|year=2023|title=How Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement|publisher=Simon & Schuster|isbn=9781668016015|ref=none}}{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2023/09/01/how-elites-ate-social-justice-movement-fredrik-deboer-review/|last=Rothfeld|first=Becca|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=2023-09-01|access-date=2023-09-05|title=Should progressives want the support of the ruling classes?}}
• {{cite book|author=Fredrik deBoer|author-mask=0|year=2025|title=The Mind Reels|publisher=Coffee House Press|isbn=9781566897372|ref=none}}

{{reflist}}

• {{Official website}}
• [https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/archive DeBoer's blog] on Substack

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Category:1981 births

Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers

Category:American educators

Category:American bloggers

Category:American male bloggers

Category:American male non-fiction writers

Category:American Marxist writers

Category:American socialists

Category:Central Connecticut State University alumni

Category:Living people

Category:People from Middletown, Connecticut

Category:Purdue University alumni

Category:University of Rhode Island alumni

Category:Writers from Connecticut

Category:People with bipolar disorder