Assistant Professor
Email | cbcook@txstate.edu
Office | TMH 230
Phone | 512.245.2142
Education
PhD Curriculum and Instruction, Cultural Studies in Education, University of Texas at Austin
MA, Boston University, African American Studies
BA, Kennesaw State University, Secondary English Education
Research Interests
Documentary Film and Public Media, Public History and Critical Pedagogy, Media Access, Cultural Memory, and Civic Life, Ethics and Power in Documentary Production, Sociocultural Histories of American Media and Education, Documentary Impact and Social Change
Courtney B. Cook is an Assistant Professor of History at Texas State University. She holds a PhD in Cultural Studies in Education from the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Texas at Austin and an MA in African American Studies from Boston University. Prior to joining TXST, Courtney taught American Literature and Journalism for over a decade in public high schools in Atlanta, Georgia and Wellesley, Massachusetts before pursuing doctoral study at UT Austin.
Courtney’s work bridges documentary film, public history, public media, and critical pedagogy. From 2018–2026, she worked with POV/American Documentary, where she developed educational and public engagement initiatives designed to position independent documentary film as a tool for civic dialogue, media literacy, and social transformation. Her work included collaborating with filmmakers, educators, archivists, libraries, and national PBS partners while contributing to the preservation and educational activation of POV’s nearly 40-year archive.
In addition to her academic work, Courtney works as a documentary producer, impact strategist, story consultant, and performance producer. Her recent projects include producing the documentary feature Cradled by Grace, which will premiere on Austin PBS in 2027, and Layers of Place, Austin, an ongoing augmented reality and participatory public art project developed in collaboration with the MIT Open Documentary Lab. Layers of Place premiered at SXSW in 2026 and is supported in part by an Elevate Grant from the City of Austin’s Arts, Culture, Music & Entertainment Department.
Courtney has dedicated years to strengthening the ecosystem of independent documentary filmmaking through mentorship, field-building, and collaborative leadership. She is an active member of organizations including the Documentary Producers Alliance, Global Impact Producers Alliance, and Future Film Coalition; serves on the Community Advisory Board for Austin PBS; and is a founding organizer of Austin’s chapter of The Video Consortium. She has also mentored filmmakers, participated in programming initiatives at festivals, and collaborated with organizations including SXSW, Austin Film Society, DocSociety, Big Sky Film Festival, and Camden International Film Festival.
Her scholarly writing has appeared in journals including Curriculum Inquiry; Women, Gender, and Families of Color; and the Journal of Curriculum Theorizing. Her current book project documents the nearly forty-year history of POV on PBS and the role of public media in shaping relationships between independent documentary film, public media infrastructures, and civic engagement in the United States.
Helpful Links | Austin Video Consortium