Cohen was among the newspaper’s photographers who won the prestigious journalism award in 2015 in breaking news photography for coverage of the Ferguson, Missouri, protests sparked by the shooting death of Michael Brown.

Cohen was a 2009 Pulitzer finalist in breaking news reporting as part of a photo team covering a deadly mass shooting in Kirkwood, Missouri, and a 2010 finalist in feature photography for work on suburban homelessness.

The USD Department of Media & Journalism and South Dakota Humanities Council are co-sponsoring Cohen’s speech, which is free and open to the public. It begins at 7 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 15, in the Al Neuharth Media Center. He will also speak to students earlier that day.

Cohen grew up in New Orleans and attended the University of Texas at Austin. He has also worked at The Times-Picayune (New Orleans), Memphis Commercial Appeal, Sun-Tattler (Hollywood, Florida) and Florida Times-Union. Read an essay about Cohen on the South Dakota Humanities Council blog that was written by Chuck Baldwin, journalist in residence at the USD Department of Media & Journalism.

Download an image of one of Cohen's photos: Edward Crawford returns a tear gas canister fired by police who were trying to disperse protesters in Ferguson, Missouri. Four days earlier, an unarmed black teenager Michael Brown was shot to death by white police officer Darren Wilson. The killing ignited riots and unrest in the St. Louis area and across the nation. (Robert Cohen, St. Louis Post-Dispatch - August, 13, 2014)

Download an image of photographer Robert Cohen.

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