Education

B.A. with Distinction in Sociology and Certificate in Women’s Studies, The University of Wisconsin-Madison;
M.A. in Sociology, The University of Texas-Austin;
Joint M.A. in Women’s Studies and Sociology, Brandeis University;
Ph.D. in Sociology, Brandeis University

“I would not know how to live in the world if I had to ignore issues of justice and equality.” - Angela Davis

"To educate as the practice of freedom is a way of teaching that anyone can learn.  That learning process comes easiest to those of us who teach who also believe that there is an aspect of our vocation that is sacred; who believe that our work is not merely to share information but to share in the intellectual and spiritual growth of our students.  To teach in a manner that respects and cares for the souls of our students is essential if we are to provide the necessary conditions where learning can most deeply and intimately begin." - bell hooks

Deborah J. Cohan
Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology

• Gender and women's studies
• Domestic violence and violence against women
• Family
• Race and ethnicity
• Feminist theory
• Masculinities
• Sociology of emotions/self and society
• Body image and sexuality
• Research methods
• Feminist pedagogy
• Memoir

Deborah Cohan comes to Connecticut College with 12 years of experience teaching sociology, women’s studies, family studies, and writing on the college and university level. She possesses over 15 years of experience working in the non-profit sector on issues of social justice and social change.

Civic engagement has infused her orientation within sociology even back when she wrote her senior thesis at UW-Madison on homeless children. 

Today, Cohan's teaching and research are richly informed and contextualized by her community service work. Certified as a counselor in battering intervention since 1994, Cohan has co-facilitated and supervised groups in the Boston area to help men end abuse in intimate relationships. The practical work experience that she has with men who batter and survivors of trauma enriches her experience as a teacher in the classroom and serves as a role model for students to merge theory and practice in their lives whenever and wherever possible. 

A dynamic public speaker who has been invited to give approximately 60 talks in the community, on campuses, and at national conferences, Cohan has also been featured on television and quoted in major national news publications about domestic violence.  She educates people on the causes, consequences, and patterns of violent behavior and the creative initiatives and coordinated responses to end violence. She conducts workshops on other issues including: race and diversity, sexuality, homophobia, wellness, relationships, and eating disorders.  She has also been invited to speak on conference panels about best practices in teaching sociology, involving undergraduates as teaching assistants, and incorporating writing into the college curriculum.

In her dissertation titled, Rage and the Sociological Imagination, Cohan investigates cultural, clinical, and pedagogical constructions and manifestations of rage, with emphasis on how rage can serve positive functions.  She is interested in rage because she sees it as one of the most complicated and least understood human emotions.  Cohan is interested in the ways rage is threaded through our psyches, our spirits, our paces and our rhythms, our relationships, our institutions, our wars, our social movements, our therapies, our teachings--essentially our lives.  Additionally, she is interested in violent men’s constructions of sexuality.  She is currently working on a memoir about what it means to regularly teach about intimacy and violence.

Cohan, who asks that her students call her Deb, enjoys teaching introductory classes and finds it especially rewarding to turn students on to a sociological imagination.  Introductory courses excite her for the transformation process that they can evoke.  While some introductory courses can be a mile long and an inch deep and are often mundane or mechanical for students and instructors alike, she is optimistic that they can instead be quite magical.  She says that it is the introductory course that gives language and voice to social inequalities, processes, conditions, arrangements, and rituals that can otherwise go unspoken and unnamed.

She teaches these courses: Introduction to Sociology, Family Analysis and Lifestyles, Family Violence, and Deviance and Social Control.

Cohan enjoys helping to coach students to become more active participants in their own lives, helping them to recognize their own potential and to develop their leadership skills.  She has nurtured hundreds of former students into internships/service learning, and working with non-profit organizations.

Cohan has experience providing expert consultation for cases of domestic and sexual violence and is available for expert witness testimony.

Among her recent publications:
“Whiteness and the Politics of Feminism,” in Teaching Resources on Racism, White Privilege, and Anti-White Supremacy, edited by Shu-Ju Ada Cheng; National Women’s Studies Association Resource Publication, 2006.

“Sitting in (on) Patriarchy: Exploring Issues of Space in a Battering Intervention Program,” in Off Our Backs: A Feminist News Journal, December 2001.

“Research on Violence Against Women: Creating Survivor–Informed Collaborations,” co-authored with Susan Fineran, Mary Gilfus, Lisa Hartwick, Susan Jensen, Robin Spath.  Violence Against Women: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal, October 1999.

Visit the sociology department.