David Cohen
Dean
David J. Cohen has served as the dean of the School of Languages, Cultures, and World Affairs at the College of Charleston since 2006 and as the dean of libraries and academic information services since 1982. In that capacity, he oversees the Marlene and Nathan Addlestone Library, the Marine Resources Library, the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture, the John M. Rivers Communications Museum and the Lowcountry Graduate Center library.
With a background in library science and research interests in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century France, Cohen has presented his work at annual meetings of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences and the American Library Association, and many of his articles have been published in academic journals, such as Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Journal of Academic Leadership, Library High Tech, The Serials Librarian and Library Trends.
Cohen has consulted for the Pennsylvania Commission for the Humanities, the Philadelphia Club, Randolph Macon Woman’s College, Johnson and Wales University, NetGen, Francis Marion University and for more than 15 other universities.
Cohen is past-president and current member of the South Carolina Library Association and has served on the advisory board of the Gale Corporation and as chairperson of the Southeastern Library Network’s board of directors, treasurer for the Jewish Historical Society of South Carolina, executive committee member for the Library Directors Forum and chair of the Council on Library and Information Resources’ College Library Committee. He is a longstanding member of the American Library Association and currently serves as a board member for the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston.
At the College, Cohen has served on a long list of committees – including the curriculum committee, Academic Affairs Organization Study Committee and the Ad Hoc Committee on Academic Computing Needs – both of which he chaired. In 2008, he lead the effort to gain approval for a new bachelor of arts degree in international studies.
Education
1985: Ph.D. in Modern European History, University of Pennsylvania1976: M.L.S., Drexel University
1972: M.A. in Modern European History, University of Pennsylvania
1970: B.A. in History, University of Pennsylvania
Honors and Awards
1986: President’s Incentive Award, College of Charleston1977: Beta Phi Mu Library Honor Society
