Jonathan DeCoster, Ph.D.
Location
Jonathan DeCoster is Associate Teaching Professor of History at the University of New England. He teaches courses in U.S. history, Indigenous history, the history of science and medicine, and other topics in the arts and humanities. His public history work at UNE includes partnerships with the Abbe Museum, the Biddeford Mills Museum, and the Maine Monitor.
Dr. DeCoster specializes in encounters between Europeans and Indigenous people in the early colonial Americas with a particular focus on intra- and cross-cultural rivalries and alliances. His publications include Conflict and Accommodation in Colonial New Mexico (Oxford, 2020), a chapter on Indigenous discovery in Firsting in the Early-Modern Atlantic World (Routledge, 2020), and articles in Itinerario, Terrae Incognitae, and Florida Historical Quarterly. He has previously held research fellowships from the American Historical Society, the American Philosophical Society, the Council for European Studies, and the Mellon Foundation.
Dr. DeCoster is a member of the boards of the Biddeford Mills Museum and the New England Historical Association.
Credentials
Education
Expertise
- Colonial History
- History of Science and Technology
- Native American History
- Writing instruction
Post-Doctoral Training
Research
Selected publications
Conflict and Accommodation in Colonial New Mexico. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2020.
"American Indian Discovery." In Firsting in the Early Modern Atlantic World, edited by Lauren Beck, 173–192. New York: Routledge, 2020.
"'Have You Not Heard of Florida?': Jean Ribault, Thomas Stukeley, and the Dream of England's First Overseas Colony." Itinerario 43, no. 3 (December 2019): 397–422.
"Conquered by Indians: Spanish Precedent and French and English Colonialism in North America." Terrae Incognitae 51, no. 2 (Summer 2019): 111–130.