Brittney Cooper
Brittney Cooper
Dr. Brittney C. Cooper is a professor, writer, and public speaker based in New Jersey. She is currently an Associate Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies and Africana Studies at Rutgers University. Cooper is originally from Ruston, Louisiana.
Education
Cooper went to Howard University and graduated with a B.A. in English and Political Science. In 2009, she earned a Ph.D. in American Studies from Emory University.
Academic Career
Cooper's research interests include Black Women’s Intellectual History, Black Feminist Thought, Hip Hop Feminisms, Hip Hop Studies, Race and Gender Representation in Popular Culture, Digital Feminisms, and New Media.
She has published several book chapters and articles on representations of Black women in popular culture, including a piece on the representation of the "baby-mama" figure in Hip Hop music and film, the feminist implications of Janet Jackson's 2004 Super Bowl mishap, and the importance of Michelle Obama in the tradition of Black female leadership.
Dr. Cooper is the co-founder of the Crunk Feminist Collective, a feminist of color scholar-activist group that runs a highly successful blog; Professor Cooper blogs for the CFC as "Crunktastic."
The blog was named as one of the top 25 Black blogs to watch in 2012 by The Root and one of the top "Lady Blogs" by New York Magazine in November 2011. The Collective also does speaking tours, conducts workshops, and engages in a range of activist causes related to women's issues.
Cooper has written several books including Beyond Respectability: The Intellectual Thought of Race Women (Women in American History) and Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower.