Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Cohn, Werner
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1926-2018
History
Werner Cohn was born in Berlin; he later received his BSS in Sociology from City College, New York, in 1951. He completed his MA (1954) and Ph.D. (1956) at the New School for Social Research. He joined the University of British Columbia's Department of Anthropology and Sociology in 1960 and remained there until taking early retirement in 1986. Cohn's research focused on the sociology of Jewish people and small political movements. In particular, Cohn developed an interest in researching Roma. He began his research on this topic in 1966/67 during a sabbatical in France. Cohn continued his culture and language studies and returned to Europe, meeting with Roma and many well-known Roma scholars. Over the years, Cohn wrote numerous articles in various scholarly journals. In 1973, he wrote The Gypsies, which summarized his findings in the field.