SPEAKER SERIES #4:
"They Will Have Their Game"
Kenneth Cohen
Wednesday, August 22nd at 7pm
Explore how sports, drinking, gambling, and theater produced a sense of democracy while also reinforcing racial, gender, and class divisions in early America.
Kenneth Cohen is Edward and
Helen Hintz Secretarial Scholar and Curator of American Culture at the
Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. He has published and spoken
widely about the political messages embedded in various forms of American entertainment,
from the colonial period to today. His scholarly work has received recognition
from the North American Society for Sport History and National Affairs magazine,
and he has been a contributor to the The Washington Post, Slate,
NPR, and C-SPAN.
Cohen received his B.A. in
History and Communications from Allegheny College, his M.A. from the Winterthur
Program in American Material Culture, and his Ph.D. in History from the
University of Delaware. Before joining the Smithsonian in 2017, he worked for the
National Park Service and from 2008-2015 was Assistant and then Associate
Professor of History and Coordinator of the Museum Studies Program at St.
Mary’s College of Maryland. While at St. Mary’s, he worked with Sotterley
Plantation on its then-new interpretive plan in 2010 and 2011, and later worked
with Calvert Marine Museum on its new aquarium. His current projects include a
major exhibit about the history of entertainment in America, and a book on the
evolution of fame.
FREE EVENT ~ please call 301-373-2280
to reserve your seat.
for supporting the Speaker Series at Sotterley
for the past 11 years.
