Rebecca Richman Cohen

Rebecca Richman Cohen
Lecturer on Law
2019-2020
Biography
Rebecca Richman Cohen has been a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School since 2011. She is an Emmy Award nominated documentary filmmaker with experience in human rights, criminal defense, and drug policy reform. Rebecca was profiled in Filmmaker Magazine's 25 New Faces in Independent Film as an "up-and-comer poised to shape the next generation of independent film." Her films have won awards at film festivals including SXSW and Tribeca and have been broadcast on networks including HBO, Sundance/AMC, public television, and Al Jazeera. She has taught classes at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), American University's Human Rights Institute, and most recently at Columbia University. Rebecca graduated from Brown University with a B.A. in Portuguese and Brazilian Studies and with a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School. She was a 2012-2013 Soros Justice Fellow and a 2015-2016 fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society.
Areas of Interest
- Law and Social Change
- Criminal Law and Procedure: Marijuana Policy
- Criminal Law and Procedure: International Criminal Law
- Human Rights: Transitional Justice
- Human Rights
Board Memberships
- Board member, New Media Advocacy Project (N-Map) (2015 - 2017)
New York, New York
Education History
- B.A. (magna cum laude) Portguese and Brazilian Studies Brown University, 2002
- J.D. Harvard Law School, 2007
Honors and Awards
- Emmy Nomination (Awards)
Outstanding Continuing Coverage of a News Story - War Don Don, 2011 - CINE Golden Eagle Award (Awards)
Investigative Reporting - Code of the West, 2013 - Hugo Munsterberg Award for Psychology of Human Nature in Cinema (Awards)
April 2011 - Best Film Award, Festival International du Film des Droits de L’Homme (Awards)
Investigative Report Jury - War Don Don, 2010 - Human Rights Watch Film Festival, New York (Awards)
Cinereach Award, June 2010 - Taiwan International Documentary Festival (Awards)
First Merit Prize, October 2010 - SXSW (Awards)
Special Jury Award, March 2010
Current Courses
- Human Rights and Humanitarianism through the Lens of Documentary Film, Spring 2020
- Seeing Criminal Justice: Examining the Interplay of Visual Media, Storytelling and Criminal Law, Fall 2019
