Researchers and Personnel of the Black Youth Project

Principal Investigator:

Cathy J. Cohen
Professor, Department of Political Science

Cathy J. Cohen, is Professor of Political Science and former Director of the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture at the University of Chicago. She is the author of The Boundaries of Blackness: AIDS and the Breakdown of Black Politics (University of Chicago Press, 1999) and co-editor with Kathleen Jones and Joan Tronto of Women Transforming Politics: An Alternative Reader (NYU, 1997). Cohen currently serves as co- editor with Frederick Harris of a book series from Oxford University Press entitled “Transgressing Boundaries: Studies in Black Politics and Black Communities.”

Cohen’s general field of specialization is American politics, although her research interests include African-American politics, lesbian and gay politics, and social movements. Her work has been published in numerous journals and edited volumes including the American Political Science Review, GLQ, NOMOS and Social Text. She has also been the recipient of numerous grants and awards including recently a Robert Wood Johnson Investigator’s Award and a Ford Foundation research award for her work on African American youth.