Daniel McCool

Dan McCool was a professor in the Department of Political Science. He co-founded and led the Environmental and Sustainability Studies program at the University of Utah. He served as Director of the ENVST Program from 2003 to 2014, during which time he oversaw the expansion of degree offerings and the formalization of the major into a Qualified Inter-Disciplinary Teaching Program in 2013. 

Professor McCool’s research focuses on Native American voting rights and water rights, and water resources and river restoration.  His ten books include: River Republic: The Fall and Rise of America’s Rivers (Columbia Univ. Press 2012); The Most Fundamental Right: Contrasting Perspectives on the Voting Rights Act (Indiana Univ. Press 2012, edited); Native Vote: American Indians, the Voting Rights Act, and Indian Voting (Cambridge Univ. Press 2007, co-authored); and NativeWaters: Contemporary Indian Water Settlements and the Second Treaty Era (Univ. of Arizona Press 2002). His most recent co-edited book is Vision and Place: John Wesley Powell and Reimagining the West (Univ. of California Press, 2020). His most recent co-authored journal article analyzes ballot collection on Indian reservations (2024). He co-authored the 2020 report on Native American voting, “Obstacles at Every Turn: Barriers to Political Participation Faced by Native Voters.”  He has served as an expert witness in 26 voting rights cases.