Dr. Jason Cooke received his PhD from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro in 2017 with specializations in pre-1900 American Literature, Native Studies, and Critical Theory. His current work explores how nonnative representations of history actively facilitated the dispossession of different Native peoples at the time of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. More specifically, he examines how nonnative notions of “Indianness,” as a flexible set of stereotypes of Native identity and culture, enabled History to become politically relevant where the land claims of different Indigenous peoples were concerned. He has presented his work at annual meetings of the Native and Indigenous Studies Association, the American Studies Association, and the Society for 19th Century Americanists.

In addition, Dr. Cooke has over a decade of teaching experience at the college level, having taught courses in American Literature, Native Literature and Settler Colonialism, Narrative Theory, and Composition and Rhetoric at several institutions, including UNC Greensboro, Guilford College, and Greensboro College. When he isn’t teaching, writing, or researching, he is parenting his two children. Any free time that comes his way is usually spent playing music (mostly guitar), playing video games (current and retro), and reading books that are not related to his field of study. He also holds an M.A in Early American Literature from Old Dominion University and a B.A. in Psychology from East Carolina University.