Direct link to hazing deaths database, 2000-2021.
Welcome to the unofficial hazing deaths clearinghouse and the web site of Hank Nuwer, author, independent journalist, and SPJ award-winning columnist for the Greenville (Ohio) Daily Advocate. I retired from teaching and public speaking in 2020.
My books on hazing include “Hazing: Destroying Young Lives, “Wrongs of Passage,” “The Hazing Reader,” “High School Hazing,” and “Broken Pledges: The Deadly Rite of Hazing.” My first article and database of hazing deaths appeared in Human Behavior magazine in 1978.
I also write occasional columns for the Franklin College Statehouse file. This one is on hazing deaths occurring in 2021. Another is on the end of Greek life at Bloomsburg University. This one exposes a hush-hush embezzlement of its former executive director at the Clery Center, a group that earned its reputation outing colleges that demonstrated a lack of transparency in school safety matters..
Honors and awards:
Ohio’s best small market columnist in Society of Professional Journalists competition (2021), SUNY Buffalo State honorary doctorate (2006) and outstanding alumnus (1999); Ball State University School of Journalism Hall of Fame (2010), Franklin College emeritus professor (2020), and member of Phi Kappa Phi and Alpha Lambda Delta national academic honor societies.
Recent publications: (2021), Journalism shield laws in SPJ’s The Quill, winning nonfiction article in 2021 Writer’s Digest competition, an essay on alternatives to hazing in a book titled “From Letters to Leaders” and nonfiction essays in the 2020, 2021, 2022 Limberlost Review issues. Also upcoming, Western American Literature book review (2022) and several articles pending at publications, including a q & a interview with Stuart Gordon in a book collection (2022). Works in progress include a nearly completed biography of Kurt Vonnegut for Indiana University Press and “Hazing in American Culture” for Clio.
I also have interviewed numerous authors and loved giving my readers first-hand insights. The interviews appear in journals and often get republished in book collections that include authors Kurt Vonnegut, David Mamet, Maurice Sendak, James Dickey, Jim Harrison, etc.
I pen creative nonfiction and short fiction for literary magazines such as Limberlost Review, South Carolina Review and South Dakota Review. My last novel is Sons of the Dawn.
What else can I tell you? I am blessed to write and particularly enjoy investigative journalism and essays/columns. Writing sustains my energies.
I am a member of IRE, SPJ, Sons of the American Legion, and Phi Kappa Phi National Academic Honor Society. My earned master’s degree is from New Mexico Highlands University. I’ve taken creative nonfiction classes at Hamline University and literature classes from Nevada-Reno. I have a formal doctoral equivalency from Ball State University.
My hobbies include rearing tropical fish and collecting journalists (see Ruben Salazar above) honored on international postage stamps. Finally, I am married to Gosia Nuwer, an accountant. Thanks for visiting.
Send site corrections to Hnuwer@hanknuwer.com
Please note that after retiring from teaching, I moved to the Indiana-Ohio stateline and no longer receive mail at Franklin College. The new mailing address is PO Box 367, Union City, IN 47390.