Edward Cohn is a scholar of Soviet and Eastern European history, with a specialty in the history of policing, surveillance, and the often-blurry line between public and private life in the Communist world. He is a professor at Grinnell College, where he teaches a survey of Soviet history, a class on the global history of surveillance, and a course on World War II on the Eastern Front, as well as a seminar on Stalinism, a section of the department’s intro class, and interdisciplinary first-year tutorials on topics like “The Life and Times of Nikita Khrushchev,” “The History of Reading,” and “The Liberal Arts as a Force for Evil.” He also helped design the department’s advanced tutorial on the modern classics of historical writing—an experimental class whose students meet with the professor in small groups for intensive discussions of major historical works.
He is also an organizer of the AHA's working group on small liberal arts colleges, where he has two main goals: to help create a venue where SLAC faculty can discuss issues of common concern and build community among faculty at SLACs. Feel free to contact him to find out more about the working group and its activities!