Faculty

Robert Cohen

Professor of Social Studies Education: Department Chair

Phone: 998 5460
Email:

Robby Cohen grew up in New York City and is a product of its school system - having graduated from James Madison High School in Brooklyn. He began his career teaching US history in the history departments at UC Berkeley and the University of Toledo and then taught history of education and social studies in the college of education at the University of Georgia. He currently chairs the Department of Teaching and Learning and is the former director of NYU's social studies program. He is an affiliated member of the NYU History Department, the NYU Metropolitan Studies program, and the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences.


Degrees Held

  • B.A. SUNY Buffalo
  • Ed.M. SUNY Buffalo
  • M.A. University of California at Berkeley
  • Ph.D. University of California at Berkeley

Publications

  • Cohen's first book, When the Old Left Was Young: Student Radicals and America's First Mass Student Movement, 1929-1941 (Oxford University Press, 1993) was chosen for Choice Magazine's list of Outstanding Academic Books for 1994. Cohen's most recent book, The Free Speech Movement: Reflections on Berkeley in the 1960s (Univ. of California Press, 2002) -- which he co-edited with Reginald E. Zelnik -- was named one of the 100 Best Books of 2002 by the Los Angeles Times Book Review ,and placed on its Best in the West list of the most important books on the West in 2002. Cohen is also the editor of Dear Mrs. Roosevelt: Letters from Children of the Great Depression (Univ. of North Carolina Press, 2002).

Research Interests

  • Cohen is involved in research projects in history and history education. He is currently working on a political biography of Mario Savio, leader of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement of 1964. His other historical projects include a study of desegregation