Edward Cohn Appointed as Director of the Rosenfield Program

Grinnell College is pleased to announce the appointment of Edward Cohn, professor of history, as the incoming director of the Rosenfield Program in Public Affairs, International Relations, and Human Rights. The transition is set to take place at the commencement of the 2024–25 academic year. 

In his new role, Cohn will take the helm of one of Grinnell’s signature programs, which seeks to enrich campus life by sponsoring co-curricular programming related to public affairs. The Rosenfield Program is especially active in hosting speakers, funding student internships, and organizing study tours for students. It has been an active part of campus life since it was endowed by the College’s Board of Trustees in 1979. 

Cohn’s work at the Rosenfield Program will build on his background as a professor of Soviet and Eastern European history.  A former political journalist who earned a doctorate at the University of Chicago in 2007, he specializes in the history of authoritarianism and secret policing and teaches courses on the Soviet Union, Stalinism, World War II, and the global history of surveillance. His research has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Philosophical Society, and the National Council of Eastern European and Eurasian Studies 

Cohn is a former acting director of the Rosenfield Program, and he has also served as chair of the Russian, Central European, and Eurasian Studies concentration, as chair of the social studies division, and as a co-leader Grinnell’s million-dollar Humanities in Action grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.  He looks forward to building new opportunities for students to learn about public affairs, to expanding the Rosenfield Program’s focus on human rights, and to helping build a lively culture of events on Grinnell’s campus. 

Cohn will succeed Professor Barb Trish, who has served as program director since 2017. Under Trish’s leadership, the Rosenfield Program expanded its program of study tours and organized successful symposia on climate change, Title IX, and the role of courts in the U.S. political system.