PERFORMING OUR FUTURE:
F O R U M
erica kohl-arenas
Erica Kohl-Arenas is the National Faculty Director of Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life. She previously worked as an Assistant Professor at the Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy at The New School and is the first recipient of The New School award in Outstanding Achievements in Diversity and Social Justice Teaching. Kohl-Arenas earned her PhD from the Social and Cultural Studies in Education program at the University of California, Berkeley (2010), an MS in Community Development from the University of California, Davis (1999), and a BA in Sociology from Reed College (1991).
Kohl-Arenas' book, The Self-Help Myth: How Philanthropy Fails to Alleviate Poverty (2016, University of California Press), analyzes the history of philanthropic investments in addressing farmworker and immigrant poverty across California’s Central Valley. Her primary research interests include the politics of private philanthropy, American social movements, and participatory community development and cultural organizing.
Kohl-Arenas has worked as a popular educator and community development practitioner in a variety of settings including urban public schools, immigrant nonprofit organizations, and coal mining and ‘crofting’ towns in Appalachia, Scotland, and Wales. Current collaborative projects include a social history memoir with her father Herb Kohl, a cultural organizing curriculum with the Pan Valley Institute (AFSC), and student engagement projects with New York City nonprofit organizations.
Kohl-Arenas' book, The Self-Help Myth: How Philanthropy Fails to Alleviate Poverty (2016, University of California Press), analyzes the history of philanthropic investments in addressing farmworker and immigrant poverty across California’s Central Valley. Her primary research interests include the politics of private philanthropy, American social movements, and participatory community development and cultural organizing.
Kohl-Arenas has worked as a popular educator and community development practitioner in a variety of settings including urban public schools, immigrant nonprofit organizations, and coal mining and ‘crofting’ towns in Appalachia, Scotland, and Wales. Current collaborative projects include a social history memoir with her father Herb Kohl, a cultural organizing curriculum with the Pan Valley Institute (AFSC), and student engagement projects with New York City nonprofit organizations.