Brittney Cooper
Brittney Cooper is a tenured professor of Women and Gender Studies, author, professor, activist, and cultural critic. Her areas of research and work include black women organizations, black women intellectuals, and hip-hop feminism. In 2013 and 2014, she was named to the Root.com's “Root 100,” an annual list of top Black influencers. Personal life and education. Cooper is from Ruston, Louisiana. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Political Science from Howard University in May 2002. She graduated summa cum laude, was involved in Phi Beta Kappa, and graduated from Howard's honors  program with her senior thesis in English. After graduating from Howard University, Cooper attended Emory University, where she received her Master of Arts from the Graduate Institute of Liberal Arts in December 2007. She received her Ph.D. in American Studies, in addition to a Women's Studies Certificate, from Emory's Graduate Institute of Liberal Arts in May 2009. Career. Cooper currently works as an associate professor of women's and gender studies and Africana studies at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. She is a co-founder of the Crunk Feminist Collective and co-editor of the collection of essays of  the same title, which explore intersectionality, African-American culture, and hip-hop feminism. She has also served as an assistant professor at the University of Alabama in the Department of Gender and Race Studies from 2009 to 2012, and she was a Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at Rutgers University's Center for Race and Ethnicity from 2011 to 2012. In 2016, Cooper gave a TED talk called "The Racial Politics of Time." Publications. Cooper has written several books. Her first book was "Beyond Respectability: The Intellectual Thought of Race Women," published in 2017 by University of Illinois Press. A book  review from National Public Radio (NPR) called "Beyond Respectability" "a work of crucial cultural study." Cooper also co-authored and edited "The Crunk Feminist Collection" (published in 2017 by The Feminist Press at City University of New York) along with Susana M. Morris and Robin M. Boylorn. The book collection received positive acclaim from "Publishers Weekly", "Kirkus Reviews", "Literary Hub", and "Ebony". The collection is a series of essays that originated on the blog The Crunk Feminist Collective, which Cooper co-founded. In 2018, her book "Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower" was published by St. Martin's  Press. In it, Cooper explores black feminism and anger, specifically the anger of black women, as a basis for revolutionary action. Cooper also writes articles for Cosmopolitan and Salon. Books. "The Crunk Feminist Collection" (2017) "Beyond Respectability: The Intellectual Thought of Race Women" (2017) "Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower" (2018)