Media U (Columbia University Press, August 2018), co-written by English professor John Marx, presents a provocative rethinking of the development of American higher education centered on the insight that universities are media institutions. Tracing over a century of media history and the academy, Marx and Mark Garrett Cooper argue that the fundamental goal of the American research university has been to cultivate audiences and convince them of its value and shows how universities have appropriated new media technologies to convey their message about higher education.

John Marx, Professor of English, became Vice Provost for Academic Planning, Aggie Square in 2022. He earned both a Ph.D. and a master’s degree in English literature from Brown University and a bachelor’s degree from the Gallatin School of New York University.  He is the academic lead on a team bringing to fruition a 25-acre innovation campus in Sacramento. His responsibilities include overseeing implementation of academic spaces, including a two-story teaching center within the complex and academic programming aligned with undergraduate living-learning communities. He works closely with faculty, university leadership, the Office of Budget and Institutional Analysis, and the Office of Foundation and Corporate Engagement.

Marx has served in numerous leadership roles for more than a decade, including Interim Vice Provost and Dean for Undergraduate Education in 2022-23, Interim Director of the University Writing Program and Writing Center starting in 2021, and Chair of the Department of English 2016-21. He joined UC Davis in 2007.

View the book at Columbia University Press