Abbie Cohen

Abbie Cohen is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Education at Colby College. In June 2025, she graduated with her Ph.D in Education from UCLA's School of Education and Information Studies where she studied how the privatization of public education influences PK-12 students, their families, and broader communities. Using a race/class/gender lens, Dr. Cohen explores how out-of-school time non-profits and philanthropy can spur both privatization and democratic resistance. As a critical, community-based, participatory ethnographer, Abbie partners with schools, organizations, and practitioners to illuminate grassroots experiences, while collaboratively designing more authentic and equitable ways of conducting educational research. Abbie was an American Association University Women (AAUW) American Fellowship winner and the 2025 Council on Anthropology and Education Dissertation Award winner. Her scholarship can be found in peer reviewed journals like AERA Open and Children & Schools and also public facing outlets like Kappan and Rethinking Schools. She hopes to push conversations of out-of-school time learning, philanthropy, and public education in academic and practitioner discourses to positively impact public school students and the broader public school ecosystem.