Sande Cohen
Encyclopedia
Sande Cohen is a historian and a former instructor of critical studies at the California Institute for the Arts, focusing on history
and historiography
.
Cohen, who was born in San Francisco, received a B.A. and M.A. from San Francisco State University
and a Ph.D. in history from UCLA. His most recent work is titled History Out of Joint: Essays on the Use and Abuse of History, Johns Hopkins Press, 2006. That book was divided in two sections: the first five chapters offered a critique of the ways in which history is mythed-up and abused in everyday practices, e.g. a chapter focused on the mainland Chinese attempts to twist history into the notion that Taiwan was always part of "china," while the five chapters of the second part of the book discuss the implications of French Theory for historiography. A special issue of the journal Rethinking History (v. 12, 2008) published essays on Cohen's writings. His first book, Historical Culture (1986, UC Press), was the first semiotic critique of historical representation; his next book, Academia and the Luster of Capital (Minnesota, 1993) was a series of essays on contemporary intellectual life, with one chapter on the politics of hiring and firing of professors in American institutions. Cohen resigned from his home institution, CalArts, over the incessant political correctness of the institution's administrators, at one point coming under public attack from CalArts' president, Steven Lavine, who accused Cohen of writing books too difficult for the majority of the students. His resignation letter is a matter of public interest, not private concern. A link to it as well as a preview of his forthcoming work on academic institutions and some nihilistic practices of academica can be found at http://www.global-french-theory.com
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
and historiography
Historiography
Historiography refers either to the study of the history and methodology of history as a discipline, or to a body of historical work on a specialized topic...
.
Cohen, who was born in San Francisco, received a B.A. and M.A. from San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University is a public university located in San Francisco, California. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers over 100 areas of study from nine academic colleges...
and a Ph.D. in history from UCLA. His most recent work is titled History Out of Joint: Essays on the Use and Abuse of History, Johns Hopkins Press, 2006. That book was divided in two sections: the first five chapters offered a critique of the ways in which history is mythed-up and abused in everyday practices, e.g. a chapter focused on the mainland Chinese attempts to twist history into the notion that Taiwan was always part of "china," while the five chapters of the second part of the book discuss the implications of French Theory for historiography. A special issue of the journal Rethinking History (v. 12, 2008) published essays on Cohen's writings. His first book, Historical Culture (1986, UC Press), was the first semiotic critique of historical representation; his next book, Academia and the Luster of Capital (Minnesota, 1993) was a series of essays on contemporary intellectual life, with one chapter on the politics of hiring and firing of professors in American institutions. Cohen resigned from his home institution, CalArts, over the incessant political correctness of the institution's administrators, at one point coming under public attack from CalArts' president, Steven Lavine, who accused Cohen of writing books too difficult for the majority of the students. His resignation letter is a matter of public interest, not private concern. A link to it as well as a preview of his forthcoming work on academic institutions and some nihilistic practices of academica can be found at http://www.global-french-theory.com