Boyd Cothran
Professor
Office: 2132 Vari Hall
Phone: 416 736-2100 Ext: 66959
Email: cothran@yorku.ca
Attached CV
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Boyd Cothran is Professor of U.S. and Global History in the Department of History at York University in Toronto, Ontario.
Born and raised in Ventura County, California, Boyd Cothran is a second-generation Okinawan-American and the first in his family to attend university. He now lives in Toronto, Canada, where he is Professor of History in the Department of History at York University. He is a former editor of the Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (2017-2022) and the author of Remembering the Modoc War: Redemptive Violence and the Making of American Innocence (University of North Carolina Press, 2014), which received the 2015 Robert M. Utley Prize for the best book in military history from the Western History Association, and The Edwin Fox: How an Ordinary Sailing Ship Connected the World in the Age of Globalization, 1850-1914 (University of North Carolina Press, 2023). He has also written for the New York Times, Indian Country Today, Aeon, and other venues, both public and academic. He has also co-edited two volumes of global history, Women Warriors and National Heroes: Global Histories (Bloomsbury, 2020) and Bridging Cultural Concepts of Nature: Indigenous People and Protect Spaces of Nature (University of Helsinki Press, 2021). For the last year and a half, he has lived in Hamburg, Germany where he has been working on a project exploring that maritime city’s thousand-year history of engagement with the rest of the world.
Degrees
PhD, University of MinnesotaMA, University of Minnesota
BA, University of California, Berkeley
Research Interests
- Lloyd Lewis Fellowship in American History - 2016-2017
- Dean's Award for Distinction in Research - 2015
- Recipient of the Robert M. Utley Prize for the Best Book in Military History from the WHA - 2015
- Finalist for Best First Book in Native American and Indigenous Studies from NAISA - 2015
- Henry Roe Cloud Fellow in Native American Studies at Yale University - 2010-2011
The Edwin Fox: How an Ordinary Sailing Ship Connected the World in the Age of Globalization, 1850-1914, co-authored with Adrian Shubert. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2023. 312 pp.
Bridging Cultural Concepts of Nature: Indigenous Peoples and Protected Spaces of Nature, co-edited with Rani-Henrik Andersson and Saara J. Kekki. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press, 2021. 336 pp.
Women Warriors and National Heroes: Global Histories, Boyd Cothran, Joan Judge, and Adrian Shubert, eds. (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020)
Remembering the Modoc War: Redemptive Violence and the Making of American Innocence (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2014)
“The Lava Beds Monument and the Making of California’s Last Indian War.” In Unforgiving Landscape: Lava Beds National Monument and the Modoc War (Klamath Falls: Shaw Historical Library, 2011), 121-132.
“Book Review: LeeAnna Keith’s The Colfax Massacre: The Untold Story of Black Power, White Terror, and the Death of Reconstruction, History: Reviews of New Books 39:3 (Spring 2011): 80.
“Book Review: Allison Varzally’s Making a Non-White America: Californians Coloring Outside Ethnic Lines, 1925-1955, History: Reviews of New Books 36:3 (Spring 2008): 103.
“Exchanging Gifts with the Dead: Lava Beds National Monument and Narratives of the Modoc War.” International Journal of Critical Indigenous Studies, 4:1 (Spring 2011): 30-40
“Working the Indian Field Days: The Economy of Authenticity and the Question of Agency in Yosemite Valley, 1916-1929.” American Indian Quarterly 34:2 (Spring 2010): 194-223.
"Melancholia and the Infinite Debate." Western Historical Quarterly, 47:01 (November 2016):
435-438. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/whq/whw091
"Enduring Legacy: U.S.-Indigenous Violence and the Making of American Innocence in the
Gilded Age." Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, 14:04 (October 2015): 562-579.
Current Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter 2025 | GS/HIST5590 3.0 | M | Transnational and Global Histories | SEMR |
| Fall/Winter 2024 | AP/HIST2600 6.0 | A | United States History | ONLN |
Upcoming Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Summer 2025 | AP/HIST2600 6.0 | A | United States History | ONLN |
Boyd Cothran is Professor of U.S. and Global History in the Department of History at York University in Toronto, Ontario.
Born and raised in Ventura County, California, Boyd Cothran is a second-generation Okinawan-American and the first in his family to attend university. He now lives in Toronto, Canada, where he is Professor of History in the Department of History at York University. He is a former editor of the Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (2017-2022) and the author of Remembering the Modoc War: Redemptive Violence and the Making of American Innocence (University of North Carolina Press, 2014), which received the 2015 Robert M. Utley Prize for the best book in military history from the Western History Association, and The Edwin Fox: How an Ordinary Sailing Ship Connected the World in the Age of Globalization, 1850-1914 (University of North Carolina Press, 2023). He has also written for the New York Times, Indian Country Today, Aeon, and other venues, both public and academic. He has also co-edited two volumes of global history, Women Warriors and National Heroes: Global Histories (Bloomsbury, 2020) and Bridging Cultural Concepts of Nature: Indigenous People and Protect Spaces of Nature (University of Helsinki Press, 2021). For the last year and a half, he has lived in Hamburg, Germany where he has been working on a project exploring that maritime city’s thousand-year history of engagement with the rest of the world.
Degrees
PhD, University of MinnesotaMA, University of Minnesota
BA, University of California, Berkeley
Research Interests
Awards
- Lloyd Lewis Fellowship in American History - 2016-2017
- Dean's Award for Distinction in Research - 2015
- Recipient of the Robert M. Utley Prize for the Best Book in Military History from the WHA - 2015
- Finalist for Best First Book in Native American and Indigenous Studies from NAISA - 2015
- Henry Roe Cloud Fellow in Native American Studies at Yale University - 2010-2011
All Publications
“The Lava Beds Monument and the Making of California’s Last Indian War.” In Unforgiving Landscape: Lava Beds National Monument and the Modoc War (Klamath Falls: Shaw Historical Library, 2011), 121-132.
“Book Review: LeeAnna Keith’s The Colfax Massacre: The Untold Story of Black Power, White Terror, and the Death of Reconstruction, History: Reviews of New Books 39:3 (Spring 2011): 80.
“Book Review: Allison Varzally’s Making a Non-White America: Californians Coloring Outside Ethnic Lines, 1925-1955, History: Reviews of New Books 36:3 (Spring 2008): 103.
The Edwin Fox: How an Ordinary Sailing Ship Connected the World in the Age of Globalization, 1850-1914, co-authored with Adrian Shubert. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2023. 312 pp.
Bridging Cultural Concepts of Nature: Indigenous Peoples and Protected Spaces of Nature, co-edited with Rani-Henrik Andersson and Saara J. Kekki. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press, 2021. 336 pp.
Women Warriors and National Heroes: Global Histories, Boyd Cothran, Joan Judge, and Adrian Shubert, eds. (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020)
Remembering the Modoc War: Redemptive Violence and the Making of American Innocence (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2014)
“Exchanging Gifts with the Dead: Lava Beds National Monument and Narratives of the Modoc War.” International Journal of Critical Indigenous Studies, 4:1 (Spring 2011): 30-40
“Working the Indian Field Days: The Economy of Authenticity and the Question of Agency in Yosemite Valley, 1916-1929.” American Indian Quarterly 34:2 (Spring 2010): 194-223.
"Melancholia and the Infinite Debate." Western Historical Quarterly, 47:01 (November 2016):
435-438. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/whq/whw091
"Enduring Legacy: U.S.-Indigenous Violence and the Making of American Innocence in the
Gilded Age." Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, 14:04 (October 2015): 562-579.
Current Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter 2025 | GS/HIST5590 3.0 | M | Transnational and Global Histories | SEMR |
| Fall/Winter 2024 | AP/HIST2600 6.0 | A | United States History | ONLN |
Upcoming Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Summer 2025 | AP/HIST2600 6.0 | A | United States History | ONLN |
