Giroux, Henry

Henry Giroux, an American sociologist, cultural critic, and political activist, is one of the founding theorists of critical pedagogy.

Born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1943, Giroux excelled at athletics and attended Gorham State Teachers' College on a basketball scholarship. After graduating in 1967 he went on to pursue a Master's degree in history at Appalachian State College, an experience he would later describe as foundational owing to his exposure to radical politics as a teacher's assistant to a politically progressive professor. After completing his master's, he taught social studies at secondary school level for a number of years before completing his Ph.D. at Carnegie Mellon in 1977.

Since that time, Giroux has held positions at Boston University, Miami University, and Penn State University; in 2005, he accepted a new post as the Global TV Network Chair in English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University. He has also held visiting professorships and teaching fellowships at a number of institutions including the Art Institute of Chicago, Northeastern University, and Tokyo Metropolitan University.

A leading theorist of critical pedagogy, Giroux's work touches on cultural studies, youth studies, critical pedagogy, popular culture, media studies, social theory, and the politics of higher and public education. According to his faculty biography at McMaster University, "…he is particularly interested in what he calls the war on youth, the corporatization of higher education, the politics of neoliberalism, the assault on civic literacy and the collapse of public memory, public pedagogy, the educative nature of politics, and the rise of various youth movements across the globe."

A prolific writer and speaker, he is the author of over 60 books and more than 400 papers.