Elizabeth F. Cohen

Assistant Professor, Political Science

Degree

Ph.D., Yale University, 2003

Specialties

Contemporary and modern political theory, history of political thought, immigration and citizenship

Publications

Books

Citizenship and Semi-Citizenship in Democratic Politics. (Forthcoming, Cambridge University Press.)

Articles

The Child Citizen and ADHD with Christopher Morley. Forthcoming, Journal of Medicine and Philosophy.

Carved from the Inside Out: Public Philosophies of Immigration and Citizenship in the United States in Debating Immigration. Carol Swain, Ed. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007).

Social Philosophy of the Family” in Debates in Social Philosophy. Laurence Thomas, Ed. (Oxford: Blackwell Press, 2007).

“Neither Seen Nor Heard: Children’s Citizenship in Democratic Polities.” Citizenship Studies, May 2005.

“Immigrant Incorporation and Intermediary Institutions” with Kristi Andersen in The Politics of Democratic Inclusion, Eds. Christina Wolbrecht and Rodney E. Hero, with Peri E. Arnold and Alvin B. Tillery, Jr. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2005. 

Courses

Modern Political Theory
The Politics of Citizenship
Theories of Civil Society  

Research Interests

Contemporary and Modern Political Theory
History of Political Thought
Immigration
Citizenship 

Research Projects

My book, Citizenship and Semi-Citizenship in Democratic Politics (forthcoming, Cambridge University Press), challenges the idea that liberal democratic citizenship is or has ever been unitary. I argue that, rather than dividing the world into citizens and non-citizens, liberal states have always engaged in the creation of what I term "semi-citizenships". Citizenship is a label superimposed over a set of memberships that do not easily lend themselves to unitary categorization. Rather, citizens experience citizenship as a continuum upon which they alight at various points during their lives. To illustrate my theoretical claims I use case studies of significant semi-citizen groups including children, resident aliens, and gays and lesbians. My articles and essays address children's citizenship, immigration, asylum, migration policy, gay marriage, the civil disabilities of felons and ex-felons, and citizenship in the European Union. In addition to these related articles I am also working on a second book-length project that explores the relationship between immigration, race, and internal mobility in the United States.