About me
Dr. Benjamin (Ben) Lathrop, a National Board Certified Teacher (NBCT), comes to National Louis University with 23 years of experience teaching courses in English language arts and teacher education. After earning a B.A. in English in 2000, Dr. Lathrop started his career as a newspaper reporter in Minnesota. After two years of reporting on a wide range of topics, including education, he enrolled in a M.Ed. and licensure program at the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities). From 2003-2008, he taught English at an urban alternative high school in north Minneapolis. In August 2008, he took a teaching position at Harding High School in St. Paul, where he taught for the next 13 years. He achieved National Board certification in 2018 and was a semi-finalist for Minnesota Teacher of the Year in 2019. From 2005-2021, he also advised high school and college student media. In July 2021, Dr. Lathrop and his family moved to Indiana, where he began a Ph.D. program in Curriculum and Instruction at Purdue University, with an English Education emphasis. At Purdue, in addition to conducting research as a Dean’s Doctoral Fellow, Dr. Lathrop taught English and literacy methods courses and supervised 49 student teachers over the course of seven semesters.
Dr. Lathrop’s primary research explores how classroom teachers can address the “post-truth” phenomenon, including mis- and disinformation, using approaches drawn from critical media literacy and epistemic cognition. His work has been published in Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy (JAAL), Journal of Language & Literacy Education (JoLLE), Equity & Excellence in Education, English Education, and English Journal, among others. He is an active member of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and English Language Arts Teacher Educators (ELATE), and he serves on the board of the Indiana Council of Teachers of English (ICTE), several journal review boards, and two non-profit boards in his community. A father of six, Dr. Lathrop enjoys camping; reading; and playing board games, pickleball, and the piano.
