Cooper holds a PhD from the
Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis. She is currently a professor of sociology at the
Australian National University, and editorial advisor to the
Phenomenal World book series, edited by
Chicago University Press. She has worked extensively on
biopolitics and
bioeconomy.
Life as Surplus (2008) traced the links between the history of
biotechnology and the rise of
neoliberalism, looking at scientific, economic, political, and cultural elements.
Clinical Labor (2014), published with Australian sociologist Catherine Waldby, focused on the embodied labor of those working as donors and research subjects in the field of
assisted reproduction and
experimental drug trials. It suggested that this form of labor posed important challenges to traditional
conceptions of labor. Her book
Family Values (2017) argued that family is central to the development of neoliberal policies such as
free market and
cuts in public spending. In particular, she states that the neoliberal project entailed shifting the responsibility for
deficit spending from the state to the household, in what she sees as an actualization of American
poverty laws. The importance of the family as the responsible for this structural role would have facilitated the alliance between seemingly incompatible neoliberal and
neoconservative political actors. ==Books==