Jess Cooper is an ethnographer, anthropologist, and writer. Mainly, she’s curious about the world around her. She likes to observe things, talk to people, and then take some notes about the details. She also likes to read, finding reading helpful for the aforementioned observing, conversing, and writing.

At present, most of her quandaries have to do with power, governance, the powerful parts of people that are ungovernable, and the ethical relations that ensue as people try to govern themselves and others nonetheless.

Jess is a Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh. She holds a doctorate in Anthropology from Princeton University. Before hopping across the pond, she was the Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow in Law and Anthropology at Cornell University, where she was also a Member of the University’s Society of Fellows.

In time away from formal academic endeavours, she likes to explore the countryside with her dog, Elmore, and her partner, Devon; take trains; and read novels and histories.