DeAnza Avonna Cook

DeAnza Avonna Cook

Doctoral Fellow
(U.S.) History Ph.D. Candidate, GSAS
DeAnza Cook

DeAnza A. Cook (she/her) began her doctoral studies at Harvard University as a Presidential Scholar in the fall of 2017. Before coming to Harvard, Cook graduated from the University of Virginia as a History Distinguished Major. Cook’s graduate research specializes in police science, police reform, and police administration in America throughout the post-Civil Rights era. Her forthcoming dissertation traces the rise of proactive “community-oriented” and “problem-oriented” policing in Greater Boston and beyond. Her work specifically examines the role of the police, police partners, and African Americans in revamping police business and police-community relations at the dawn of the twenty-first century.

 

At Harvard College, Cook serves as the lead Race Relations and Diversity & Inclusion tutor at Cabot House. She is also a research fellow with the Center for American Political Studies. In addition to her doctoral work, she is a “Civil Rights and Constitutional Policing” course administrator for law enforcement officers in her home state of Virginia, as well as an African American History instructor for incarcerated students at MCI-Norfolk.