Thomas Cooke is a Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Connecticut. Professor Cooke is interested in the spatial processes of job search, commuting and migration and their impacts on individuals, families, and communities.

 

While he has published on a variety of topics his primary interests lie in three distinct research topics: 1) How families make migration decisions and the impacts of those decision on the employment of married women, 2) the inter- and intra-metropolitan distribution of poverty concentrations, and 3) explaining the long-term decline in internal migration rates.  His research has been funded by the NSF, the UK’s ESRC, the Sloan Foundation and the Brookings Institute.

 

A native of the Midwest, Professor Cooke studied Soviet geography while both an undergraduate at Ohio State University and a Master’s student at Indiana University. In 1993 he completed his PhD at Indiana University with a focus on urban poverty.

 

Since 1994 Professor Cooke has been at the University of Connecticut where he has directed both the Urban Studies program and the Center for Population Research. He regularly teaches two undergraduate courses -  The City in the Western Tradition and Population Geography – and one graduate course – Research Design.

 

He has held fellowships at the University of St Andrews and the University of Amsterdam, and served as the President of the Population Geography Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers. Professor Cooke is currently on the editorial boards of the Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Demography and Population, Space and Place.