DeAnza Cook entered the U.S. History Ph.D. program at the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in the Fall of 2017. She is particularly interested in American carceral history and the history of police. In addition to studying crime and punishment, Cook researches the law of policing and the historical evolution of the American criminal jurisprudence.
Her current
project explores the history of Operation Ceasefire and the Community Policing model in Boston in the 1990s (aka “The Boston Miracle”). As a supplement to her historical work, DeAnza will be creating an online multimedia archival site that will provide information about Ceasefire operations and their impact on urban communities of color for law enforcement, educators, and the general public.
DeAnza Cook received her B.A. from the University of Virginia in American History. Her earlier research focused on broken windows policing and its impact on crime and race relations in major cities during the post-Civil Rights era.