Pekka Hämäläinen, Rhodes Professor of American History, specialises in early and nineteenth century American history and has particular interest in Native American, environmental, and borderlands history.  His 2008 book The Comanche Empire received several awards, including the Bancroft Prize, the Merle Curti Award, the Caughey Prize, the Norris and Carol Hundley Award, the John C. Ewers Award, the William P. Clements Prize, the Kate Broocks Bates Award, the Great Plains Distinguished Book Award, the Philosophical Society of Texas Award of Merit, and Recognition of Excellence Award in the Cundill International Prize in History.

He is currently working on a book that traces the history of power relations and social worlds in North America from the seventeenth through the nineteenth century, integrating indigenous and European perspectives, borderlands and imperial histories, and transatlantic and continental approaches.