Bridget R. Cooks fills a joint appointment in the Program in African American Studies and the Department of Art History at UCI. She is an Associate Professor within the School of Humanities and is also apart of the Graduate Programs in Visual Studies and Culture and Theory. Cooks' research focuses on African American art and culture, Black visual culture, museum criticism, film, feminist theory and post-colonial theory. In 2002 she earned her doctorate degree in the Visual and Cultural Studies Program at the University of Rochester. She has received a number of awards, grants and fellowships for her work including the prestigious James A. Porter & David C. Driskell Book Award in African American Art History, and the Henry Luce Dissertation Fellowship in American Art. She has also curated several exhibitions of African American art including "The Art of Richard Mayhew" at the Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, 2009-2010. Prior to her appointment at UCI, she taught in the Department of Art and Art History and the Program of Ethnic Studies at Santa Clara University. She also served as museum educator for the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Cooks is a UCI alumna. She received her B.A. from the School of Humanities in 1996.