2018-2019 Fellow · 2024-2025 Senior Fellow
Robert Cohen
Professor of Social Studies Education New York University
About Robert Cohen
Robert Cohen, a professor of social studies and history at New York University, is a historian of student protest, whose books have explored the history of the struggle for free speech, peace, and racial justice on campuses in the US during the 20th century. Among his more recent books are The Free Speech Movement: Reflections on Berkeley in the 1960s: Freedom's Orator: Mario Savio and the Radical Legacy of the 1960s; Rebellion in Black and White: Southern Student Activism in the 1960s, and Confronting Jim Crow: Race, Memory, and the University of Georgia in the 20th Century.
Projects
- Civic Engagement
- Free Speech/First Amendment
- Protest/Activism
- Responding to Hateful and Offensive Speech
Free Speech at Berkeley: Research and Lessons
Cohen compared free speech crises at UC Berkeley in 2017 and the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1967, then developed related curriculum materials for middle and high school teachers and incoming college students.
Read the full project: Free Speech at Berkeley: Research and LessonsThe Free Speech Movement @60: Reflections on Campus Free Speech 1964/2024
Marking the 60th anniversary of the Free Speech Movement (FSM), Robert Cohen’s project explores the history of that movement, its legacy, and the state of campus free speech since 1964. It involves public forums, teacher workshops, development of college orientation materials and publications, which feature historians, FSM veterans, legal scholars, students and campus administrators.
Read the full project: The Free Speech Movement @60: Reflections on Campus Free Speech 1964/2024