This is part of a series of profiles on professors doing interesting things across UNC’s campus.
Dan Cobb, coordinator for the American Indian and Indigenous Studies curriculum, will be able to teach international students in Helsinki, Finland, about Native American history after receiving the Fulbright Scholarship.
"It’s a research and teaching scholar position. And one of the most important things I’ll be doing there is actually my own research, but I’ll also be in the classroom," Cobb said. "In the classroom, I’ll be interacting with students not just from Finland but all over the world.”
Cobb said he wants to continue to promote the importance of Native American history in the grand scheme of history.
“I think the most important thing to me isn’t so much an event, but it is that, even as we understand the history of Native America as distinct, it is inseparable from the larger narratives of the U.S. and world history,” Cobb said. “Native Americans aren’t marginal or peripheral to the stories that we usually tell when we think of world history or U.S. history, but are in fact central actors to it."
Kathleen DuVal, an associate professor in the Department of American Studies, said she believes Cobb fully deserves the scholarship.
“I’m not surprised at all," she said. "He is a world leader in American Indian and indigenous studies. His work is the kind of work that the Fulbright is designed to honor and promote."
Another professor in the Department of American Studies, Malinda Lowery, said she has known Cobb for over a decade. She said she thinks he has played an important and helpful role in her professional life at UNC. 
“Dan offers balance to our somewhat chaotic professional lives," she said. "He is a model teacher, and I am fortunate to have his best students in my classes. His moral compass is something I rely on to make good decisions about my roles here at UNC.”
