DeAnza A. Cook

DeAnza A. Cook is an Assistant Professor of American History and Leadership at The Ohio State University, specializing in police reform, police science, and community resistance during and after Civil Rights and Black Power struggles. She teaches courses on policing, incarceration, and social justice through the Ohio Prison Education Exchange Project.

Born in Jacksonville, FL, she earned a BA from the University of Virginia and MA/PhD from Harvard University. Her current book project examines evolving ideas in American law enforcement that transformed urban policing post-Civil Rights. Her publications appear in Metropole, Black Perspectives, and the Annual Review of Criminology.

She serves on the Board of Directors for Healing Our Land, Inc., teaching civic education in jails through the Empowering Descendant Communities project.