Prior to joining the Moritz faculty, Professor Cohen was a Fulbright scholar in Nepal where she taught alternative dispute resolution at the Kathmandu School of Law and assisted international donor agencies in implementing programs in community mediation and evaluating the impact of development aid in Maoist-affected regions. Upon her return to the U.S., she clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in Denver, Colorado. During law school, she received a Hewlett Foundation Jr. Fellowship in the Program on Negotiation, worked at the White House and the State Department, and taught legal writing.
At Moritz, she teaches international dispute resolution and mediation in the school's nationally renown dispute resolution program. She also teaches property and a course on law and development. Her research interests include comparative dispute resolution, international development, and gender and cultural theory.
"The Center for the Study of Jewish Life at Rutgers was a central part of my undergraduate experience and intellectual formation. I wrote my senior honors history thesis under the direction of center director Professor Yael Zerubavel. I examined the rise of Jewish religious nationalism at the turn of the 20th century and, more specifically, the process through which diverse social groups interpret authoritative texts for disparate, and often competing, political ends. That same inquiry led me to the study of law. When Professor Zerubavel invited me to present my research at the Fourteenth Annual Meeting of the Association of Israel Studies the summer following my college graduation, my desire to become an academic was sealed."
"I am extremely proud of the honor's thesis that I completed with Dr. Zerubavel as my advisor and still refer to that work in my current position. It is wonderful that a State University such as Rutgers has such a fine Jewish Studies Department that allows college students to explore Judaism on such a high level."
"After graduating from Rutgers, I received a Masters in Strategic Public Relations from The University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication. While at USC, I wrote my M.A. thesis on the role of public relations in the transition from war to peace, using the Oslo Peace Process as a case study."
"Since graduating from the Annenberg School in May 2005, I have moved to Washington, D.C., where I recently became the Assistant Director of Israel Advocacy and International Affairs at the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of Greater Washington. My responsibilities include Israel advocacy, Darfur advocacy/international affairs, Holocaust education (and planning the annual community-wide commemoration) and the organization's public relations."
"My minor in Jewish Studies was a great complement to my other undergraduate studies. The Jewish Studies department offered close interaction with talented and diverse faculty and visitors as well as the opportunity to work with and get to know other intelligent and motivated students. This made for a great dynamic within the department, having the effect of making a big school like Rutgers seem a lot smaller."