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Shane Bauer

American journalist

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About Shane Bauer

Shane Bauer was an American journalist.

Shane Bauer is an American journalist, best known for his undercover reporting for Mother Jones magazine. He has won several awards including the Harvard's Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting and the National Magazine Award for Best Reporting.

Life Bauer grew up in Onamia, Minnesota and he is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley in peace and conflict studies.

In July 2009, Bauer and two companions (Joshua Fattal and Sarah Shourd) were arrested by Iranian border guards after straying into Iran while allegedly hiking in northern Iraq near the Iranian border. The three Americans were held in prison in Iran on espionage charges for more than two years before their release in September 2011. They subsequently co-authored a memoir of their experience (A Sliver of Light), as well as the cover story ("Kidnapped by Iran") for the March–April 2014 issue of Mother Jones magazine.

Bauer has worked as a foreign correspondent, reporting from Iraq, Sudan, Chad, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen. His work has appeared in The Nation, Salon.com, the Los Angeles Times, the Christian Science Monitor, and The New Yorker.

In 2015 he worked as an undercover journalist for Mother Jones while employed for six months as a prison guard at the Winn Correctional Center, a private prison in Winn Parish, Louisiana managed by the Corrections Corporation of America (now known as CoreCivic).

In 2016, he took on another undercover news assignment for Mother Jones, infiltrating Three Percent United Patriots, a right-wing border militia in southern Arizona.

Works

Books

Awards

Fellowships

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Important facts

Occupation
Nationality
Education
University of California, Berkeley
Employers
Mother Jones
Awards
Michael Kelly Award; Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting; Shuttleworth Foundation Flash Grant; Izzy Award; The Hillman Prize for Magazine Journalism

Frequently asked questions

Who was Shane Bauer?

American journalist

What was Shane Bauer's occupation?

Shane Bauer was a journalist.

What nationality was Shane Bauer?

Shane Bauer was American.

Sources & further reading

· Wikipedia: Shane Bauer

· Wikidata: Q43303661

· DBpedia: Shane Bauer

Cite this page

APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Shane Bauer. https://biography.guide/shane-bauer/

MLA: "Shane Bauer." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/shane-bauer/.

Chicago: "Shane Bauer." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/shane-bauer/.

Data last updated: 2026-09-21 · Spot an error? Report a correction.

Portrait: Wikimedia Commons · author & licence

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