About Me
Trained as an historian of Anglo-America, I have become increasingly interested in American religious history and, as both former director of the UW-Madison Religious Studies Program and current director of the Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions, comparative religion. At this point my projects are eclectic: they include work on theology and the liberal state, and pluralism in modern America.
Education:
PhD: University of California - Berkeley; BA: Yale
Research Interests:
American Religious History, Colonial America, Native Peoples of the Eastern
Woodlands, 1500-1800.
Selected Publications:
- Leonard V. Kaplan and Charles L. Cohen, Theology and the Soul of the Liberal State (Lanham, MD, 2010)
- Charles L. Cohen and Paul S. Boyer, Religion and the Culture of Print in Modern America (Madison, WI, 2008)
- “The Construction of the Mormon People,” Journal of Mormon History 32 (2006): 25-64
- “Religion,” in James Ciment, ed., Colonial America: An Encyclopedia of Social, Political, Cultural, and Economic History, 5 vols. (Armonk, NY, 2006), 1.58-69
- “No Man Knows My Psychology: Fawn Brodie, Joseph Smith, and Psychoanalysis,” BYU Studies, 44, 1 (2005), 55-78
- “Max Weber in New England,” in David Libby and Paul Spickard, eds., Affect and Power: Essays on Sex, Slavery, Race, and Religion in Appreciation of Winthrop D. Jordan, (n.p., 2005), 170-82
- “The Colonization of North America as an Episode in the History of Christianity,” Church History, 72 (September, 2003), 553-68
- “A Middle Way for Religious Studies,” Bulletin of the Council of Societies for the Study of Religion, 32, 1 (February, 2003), 11-13
- “Was the Great Awakening a factor leading to the American Revolution?
- No,” in Keith Krawczynski, ed., History in Dispute, vol.
12: The American Revolution (Columbia, S.C., 2003), 149-53
Awards:
Research
- co-recipient, Metanexus Global Societies Initiative Grant, 2008-13
- co-recipient, Metanexus Local Societies Initiative Grant, 2005-08
- Joseph Fielding Smith Institute Research Fellowship, 2004
- Asia-Pacific Study Fund Short-Term Research Fellowship, Japan, 2004
- Osaka University of Foreign Studies International Academic Exchange Fellowship, 2004
- Anonymous Fund, UW-Madison, 2002, 2006
- Romnes Fellowship, UW-Madison, 1990-95
- Vilas Associateship, 1991-93
- Institute for Research in the Humanities, Visiting Fellow, 1986
- Allan Nevins Prize, Society of American Historians.
Teaching
- Phi Beta Kappa Distinguished Teaching Award, 2002
- Emil H. Steiger Distinguished Teaching Award, 1997
- F.F. Johnson Teaching Award, History Department, 1995, 1996
- Elected UW-Madison Teaching Academy, 1996
- Karen F. F. Johnson Award (UW History Dept.), 1995, 1996
- N.E.H. Younger Scholars Award (faculty co-recipient), 1995
- UW Faculty/Student Hilldale Research Award, 1992, 1995