University of California Irvine Scholar Is the First Winner of New Book Award

Bridget R. Cooks, an associate professor of art history and African American studies at the University of California Irvine is the inaugural winner of the James A. Porter and David C. Driskell Book Award in African American Art History. The honor is awarded by the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora at the University of Maryland College Park.

Professor Cooks is being honored for her book Exhibiting Blackness: African Americans and the American Art Museum (University of Massachusetts Press).

Prior to joining the faculty at the University of California Irvine, Dr. Cooks taught at Santa Clara University in California and was a museum educator at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. She holds a Ph.D. in art history, visual and cultural studies from the University of Rochester.