Claire Cox is a PhD student at the University of Oklahoma. Her research focuses on 20th century environmental and Indigenous history of the Great Plains. She earned her BA and MA in history from the University of Kansas. As an undergraduate student, she studied the consequences of settler colonialism and the practice of decolonization. As a graduate student, she researched the history of artificial lakes, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and land dispossession in Kansas and Oklahoma. Claire also worked at the Wakarusa River Valley Heritage Museum, where she combined her work in a collaborative grant project that concluded with the installation of a permanent exhibit about the Kaw Nation. At OU, Claire will continue to research artificial lakes by exploring ideas of reservoir tourism and wilderness construction throughout the Great Plains.
