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Deborah Cohen

Professor:
History
Phone: +1 401 863 3209
Deborah_Cohen@Brown.EDU

Deborah Cohen's research focuses upon the history of modern Britain and Europe. Her first book, The War Come Home: Disabled Veterans in Britain and Germany, 1914-1939, was published by the University of California in 2001, and awarded the Social Science History Association's Allan Sharlin Prize. Her second book, Household Gods: The British and their Possessions, was published by Yale University Press in 2006; it won the American Historical Association's Forkosch Prize for the best book on Britain after 1485 and was the co-winner of the North American Conference on British Studies' Albion prize for the best book on Britain after 1800.

Biography

Raised in Louisville, Kentucky, Deborah Cohen received her A.B. summa cum laude from Harvard-Radcliffe College in 1990, and her Ph.D. from Berkeley in 1996. She has held fellowships from the Mellon Foundation, the National Humanities Center, the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library, the American Council of Learned Societies (Frederick Burkhardt Fellowship for Recently Tenured Scholars) and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. She is currently working on a book about families and social stigma in modern Britain.

Awards

2007 -- Forkosch Prize for Household Gods, awarded by the American Historical Association to the best book in the English language on Britain after 1485

2007 -- Albion Prize for Household Gods (co-winner), awarded by the North American Conference on British Studies to the best book on Britain after 1800

2007 -- Household Gods shortlisted for PEN's Hessell-Tiltman prize

2002 -- Allan Sharlin book prize for The War Come Home, awarded by the Social Science History Association to the best work of social science history

Affiliations

2007: Sharlin Prize Committee, Social Science History Association
2006-9: Editorial Board, Journal of Modern History
2005-6: Council for European Studies Conference Committee
2001-5: Grant Reviewer, National Humanities Center
2002: Co-organized (with Peter Mandler) conference on "Art and Society in the Long Nineteenth Century," German Historical Institute.
2002: Mentor, Young Scholars' Forum, German Historical Institute
2001: Grant Reviewer, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
2001: Mentor, Transatlantic Doctoral Seminar, Georgetown University
2001: Co-organized (with Maura O'Connor) conference on "Europe in Cross-National and Comparative Perspective," Taft Foundation And German Historical Institute.
1998-2002: Judge, Berkshire Conference of Women Historians Essay Contest
1999-2000: Grant Reviewer, German Marshall Fund

Teaching

Modern European History, especially the history of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Britain. At Brown, I have taught seminars on the history of the bourgeoisie, the history of human rights, and the theory and practice of history. I am also a Faculty Associate at the Watson Institute (Politics, Culture and Identity).

Funded Research

2010-11: American Council of Learned Societies Frederick Burkhardt Fellowship for Recently Tenured Faculty (Newberry Library)
2009-10: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship
2008-9: Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, New York Public Library
2004-5: Howard Foundation fellowship
2003-4: Salomon Grant
2002: Conference Grant, German Historical Institute
2001-2: National Humanities Center Fellowship
2001: Huntington Library Fellowship [declined]
2001: Mellon Fellowship, Newberry Library [declined]
2001: Summer Fellowship, National Endowment for the Humanities
1999: Conference Grant, German Historical Institute
1997-8: German American Research Network Grant
1996-7: Conant Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Center for European Studies, Harvard University
1996: Columbia Society of Fellows [declined]
1991-5: Mellon Fellowship
1994-5: German Academic Exchange Service Fellowship
1993: Council for European Studies (Columbia) Fellowship
1991-4: Berkeley Fellowship for Graduate Study
1991: Jacob Javits Fellowship [declined]

Web Links

Curriculum Vitae