Sam Cook

Sam Cook, Associate Professor

Curriculum Vitae

_{Department of History

401 Major Williams Hall, 220 Stanger St., Blacksburg, VA 24061

sacook2@vt.edu}

Dr. Sam Cook is an associate professor in the Department of History and the director of American Indian Studies.

Current Projects:

Indigenous Natural Resource Management among Virginia Indian Nations (an applied collaboration with Monacan horticulturalists and Pamunkey watermen)
Understanding Anthropology within the Context of Indigenous Agency (an examination of the impact of indigenous peoples interactions within anthropology on the discipline, past and future)
Creating Linkages Between African Slave Descendant Communities and Cultural Sites in Southwest Virginia (an ongoing collaboration with descendant communities and archaeologist Thomas Klatka, Virginia Department of Historic Resources)

Principal Areas of Research Focus

Indigenous Political Economies and Ecologies
American Indian Law and Policy
Indigenous Knowledge Systems
Appalachian Cultures
Human Ecology and Sustainability

Education

Ph.D., University of Arizona
M.A., University of Arizona
B.A., Radford University

Professional Roles

Coordinator of American Indian Studies Program, Virginia Tech
External Graduate Faculty, Department of History, University of Maine
American Anthropological Association
Association of American Indian and Indigenous Anthropologists
Native American and Indigenous Studies Association

Awards and Honors

College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences Excellence in Outreach Award, Virginia Tech, 2009
Certificate of Excellence for Service to the Commission on Equal Opportunity and Diversity, Virginia Tech, 2005
Mooney Award, Monacans and Miners, presented by the Southern Anthropological Society, 2003

Publications

Books

Cook, Samuel R. Monacans and Miners: Native American and Coal Mining Communities in Appalachia. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000. 329 pp.

Journal Articles

Cook, Samuel R. “General Anthropology: Where the Lines Blur.” General Anthropology Bulletin (2014): in press.

Cook, Samuel R., and Thomas Klatka. “’Whose, Blood, Sweat, and Tears…’: Reclaiming African History and Collaborative Anthropology in Virginia’s New River Valley.” Practicing Anthropology 32 (4): 35-39.

Cook, Samuel R. “’You Can’t put a Price on it’: Activist Anthropology in the Mountaintop Removal Debate.” Collaborative Anthropologies 1: 138-162.

Cook, Samuel R., Johns, John L. and Karenne Wood. “The Monacan Nation Pow Wow: Symbol of Indigenous Survival and Resistance in the Tobacco Row Mountains.” Southern Anthropologist vol. 30, no. 2 (2005): 1-19.

Book Chapters

Cook, Samuel R. “Cycles of Ethnogenesis: (re)Birth of the Monacan Nation.” In Jeff J. Corntassel and Tom Holm, eds., The Power of Peoplehood: Contemporary Indigenous Community-Building. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, in press.

Fellowships, Grants, and Sponsored Research

2009 - Virginia Tech, College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, South Atlantic Humanities Innovation Grant for research and curriculum development on critical Indigenous theory, $500.
2008 - Virginia Indian Pre-College and Oureach Initiative. Co-organizer and advisor, 2008-present. Participants since 2008: 83. Funded by Terry-Lynne Poemer foundation grant, $50,000 for five years.
2004 - Virginia Foundation for the Humanities General Program Grant for the Brush Mountain Oral History Project, $6,000.

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