Karoline Cook

Karoline Cook is a Lecturer in History of the Atlantic World at the School of History, Royal Holloway, University of London. Her research focuses on social and cultural history of the Iberian Atlantic, examining interconnections between the Mediterranean and the Americas during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Dr. Cook's research interests include:

• Early Modern History
• Iberian Atlantic History
• Moriscos
• Islam in the Americas
• Histories of Empire
• Race
• Migration

Her scholarship analyzes how Muslim-Christian relations in the western Mediterranean influenced social transformations in colonial Spanish America, with particular attention to religious identity, migration, mobility, empire, and emerging ideas about race in the early modern period. Her work demonstrates how knowledge circulated among Indigenous and Morisco families across the Atlantic world through strategic marriages, patronage networks, and military service to the Crown.

Dr. Cook's publications reveal trends in Atlantic World history that emphasize transnational connections and challenge traditional national narratives. Her work bridges Mediterranean and colonial American history, showing how religious and ethnic identities were negotiated across imperial boundaries. The articles demonstrate consistent focus on marginalized communities and their strategies for navigating imperial structures.

Her academic recognitions include fellowships at the USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute, the John Carter Brown Library, the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities, and a Visiting Fellowship at Exeter College, Oxford (Spring 2020). She serves on the editorial board of the Bulletin for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies.

Dr. Cook teaches courses on Spanish and Portuguese Empires in the Americas, Entangled Histories of the Atlantic World, and contributes to early modern history offerings at Royal Holloway. As Foundation Year Tutor, she plays a key role in supporting students' academic development. Prior to her current position, she taught at the University of Southern California, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Washington State University.