About the Selma Jeanne Cohen Fund Program

The Selma Jeanne Cohen Fund for International Scholarship on Dance honors the pioneering and seminal contributions of preeminent dance historian Selma Jeanne Cohen.  The Fulbright Association created the fund with a generous gift from Dr. Cohen in 2000 to recognize the importance of her Fulbright exchange experience in Russia and to perpetuate her interests in dance as an international enterprise.  

Dr. Cohen was an historian, editor, and teacher who devoted her career to proving dance an art worthy of the same scholarly respect traditionally given to painting, music, and literature.  She was America's leading figure in dance scholarship and edited the six-volume "International Encyclopedia of Dance" (1998), the most comprehensive guide of its kind.  Dr. Cohen served as a dance critic for the "New York Times" and the "Saturday Review," wrote and edited several books, and taught at the University of Chicago and other higher education institutions.  

The endowed lecture supported by the Selma Jeanne Cohen fund occurs at the Fulbright Association's annual conference, an important multidisciplinary forum whose participants are prominent Fulbright alumni, public officials, and representatives of the higher education and foreign affairs communities. The Selma Jeanne Cohen Fund provides an honorarium, round-trip travel funds, and expenses for a dance scholar to give a major presentation on dance scholarship at the conference.