Jeffrey Jerome Cohen

Professor of
English

Director, GW Medieval and Early Modern Studies Institute (GW MEMSI)

George Washington University

Washington DC 20052 

jjcohen[at]gwu[dot]edu  

I blog at In the Middle:

inthemedievalmiddle.com

Facebook 

Twitter 

Books:

PUBLICATIONS:  BOOKS


BOOK CHAPTERS AND JOURNAL ARTICLES


BOOK REVIEWS, ENCYCLOPEDIA ENTRIES, AND LETTERS

  • Review of Anthony Bale, The Jew in the Medieval Book: English Antisemitisms, 1350-1500 in Studies in the Age of Chaucer (2008) 340-43
  • "Animals, sexual symbolism of." Entry for the Gale Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender, ed. Fedwa Malti-Douglas (Macmillan Reference, 2008)
  • "Postcolonial Theory." Entry for Women and Gender in Medieval Europe: An Encyclopedia, ed. Margaret Schaus (New York: Routledge, 2007) 660-661.
  • Review of Peter Haidu, The Subject Medieval/Modern: Text and Governance in the Middle Ages in L'Esprit Créatur 46.3 (2006) 114.
  • "Monstrous Beauty" (review of Debra Higgs Strickland, Saracens, Demons, and Jews: Making Monsters in Medieval Art), Patterns of Prejudice 39.3 (2005) 343-45.
  • Review of Kathryn L. Lynch, ed. Chaucer's Cultural Geography, Studies in the Age of Chaucer 26 (2004) 409-11.
  • Review of Mark Thornton Burnett, Constructing 'Monsters' in Shakespearean Drama and Early Modern Culture, Shakespeare Quarterly 55.1 (2004): 98-100.
  • "Race." Dictionary of the Middle Ages, Vol. 14: First Supplement, ed. William Chester Jordan (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2004) 515-18.
  • Review of Peggy McCracken, The Curse of Eve, the Wound of the Hero: Blood, Gender, and Medieval Literature, H-France Book Reviews, December 2003 (www3.uakron.edu/hfrance/reviews/cohen2.html)
  • Review of Charles Ross, The Custom of the Castle:  from Malory to Macbeth, Shakespeare Quarterly 50.3 (1999): 392-93.
  • Review of Claire Sponsler, Drama and Resistance:  Bodies, Goods, and Theatricality in Late Medieval England, Arthuriana 8.3 (1998): 100-101.
  • "Monstrosity, Geographical." Trade, Travel, and Exploration in the Middle Ages: An Encyclopedia, ed. John Block Friedman and Kristen Mossler Figg (Garland Publishing, 2000): 415-16.
  • Review of Michael J. Curley, Geoffrey of Monmouth, Speculum 73 (1998): 162-63.
  • Review of Feminist Approaches to the Body in Medieval Literature (ed. Linda Lomperis and Sarah Stanbury), Bryn Mawr Medieval Review 94.4.6.
  • Letter to the editor on “post-disciplinarity," PMLA 111.2 (1996): 83.


HONORS, AWARDS, AND GRANTS

  • Ida Beam Visiting Professorship, University of Iowa (spring 2011)
  • GW Service Excellence Faculty/Staff Choice Award nominee (2009)
  • Faculty Speaker, Columbian School of Arts and Sciences Commencement (faculty member chosen by students to deliver speech at ceremony, 2009)
  • University Facilitating Fund Grant, George Washington University: “Dreaming the Prehistoric in the Middle Ages” ($9,638 for summer research, 2009).
  • Monster Theory: Reading Culture honored at the fifteenth anniversary of its publication through a special session “Monster Culture: Seven Theses (A Roundtable)” at the International Congress of Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo 2008.
  • Research Enhancement Fund of the George Washington University (three year sponsorship of a medieval and early modern studies institute, funded at $120,000 in startup)
  • American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship (one year of leave to pursue project "The Flow of Blood in Medieval Norwich," 2003-04)
  • Columbian Research Fellow, George Washington University (one year of teaching release to complete manuscript of The Flow of Blood in Medieval Norwich, 2003-04)
  • University Facilitating Fund Grant, George Washington University: "Mixed Racial Heritage and Personal Identity in the Middle Ages" ($10,000 for research, travel, and manuscript work in London and York, 2000)
  • Instructional Technology Lab Course Grant, George Washington University ($2500 to add multimedia component to "Survey of Medieval Literature," 2000)
  • Monster Theory: Reading Culture included in the exhibits "A Telling of Wonders: Teratology in Western Medicine," New York Academy of Medicine Library (November 1, 1999 - February 15, 2000) and "Terrors and Wonders: Monsters in Contemporary Art," DeCordova Museum, Lincoln MA (Sept. 15 2001-Jan. 6 2002)
  • Columbian School of Arts and Sciences Excellence in Academic Advising Award, George Washington University ($500 prize, 1999)
  • Nominee, Oscar and Shoshana Trachtenberg Prize for Teaching, George Washington University (1999, 2002)
  • Junior Faculty Incentive Award, George Washington University ($5000 for research at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, 1998)
  • Cooperative Grant for Faculty, Consortium of Washington Universities:  "The Limits of the Body:  An Interdisciplinary Research Group, Symposium,     and Edited Volume" (with Gail Weiss;  $2200, 1997)
  • Human Sciences Course Development Grant, George Washington University: "Cultural Theory:  Culture and Society" ($3000, 1996)
  • Derek Bok Center Certificate of Distinction in Teaching, Harvard University (1992, 1993, 1994)
  • Jacob K. Javits Fellowship for Graduate Study (1988-1992)
  • Joseph P. O'Hern Traveling Scholarship for Study and Research in Europe, University of Rochester ($4500, 1987)


MEDIA AND MISCELLANEOUS

  • Founder of and contributor to the medieval studies group blog In the Middle. The blog received Cliopatria’s “Best Group Blog” award for 2007 and has been featured in the Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Education.
  •  Interviewed about monsters and culture in Theofantastique
  • Interviewed for “Knights of the Faculty Lounge,” John Gravois, Chronicle of Higher Education (7/6/2007)
  • Presenter at the "Windows" discussion on Michael Kahn's National Shakespeare Theatre production of Richard III (2007)
  • “Talking head” speaking about medieval dragons, Beowulf, and the enduring appeal of monsters in the History Channel / PBS documentary Flight of the Dragon (2005)
  • Expert witness on the history of monstrosity, "Miller v. Pixar/Disney" (2003-06)
  • Guest panelist for show on monstrousness in medieval and contemporary culture for the talk show Odyssey, Chicago Public Radio, April 11, 2003. Archived at www.wbez.org
  • Interviewed and quoted in Libby Copeland, "In Corridors of Power, The Cup's Half Empty: Leader's Language Tests Our Fabled Optimism," The Washington Post May 28, 2002.
  • Interviewed and quoted in Sarah Bayliss, "Our Monsters, Ourselves," The Boston Sunday Globe Nov. 11, 2001

 

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Undergraduate Courses
History of the English Language; Chaucer; Survey of British Literature; Medieval Literature; Medieval Myths of King Arthur; Middle English Literature; Medieval Romance; Critical Methods (undergraduate introduction to theory); Medieval Monsters and Heroes; Flesh and Spirit: Histories of the Body; The Postcolonial Middle Ages; Advanced Theory; Myths of Britain

Graduate Seminars
Chaucer; Culture and Society; Foucault and Deleuze; Introduction to Literary Criticism; Writing Race and Nation; Cultural Construction of Time; Hybridity and Complex Systems; Medieval Fantasies of the Aboriginal; The Archipelago of England; Transnational England