Dr. Melinda Cooper

Biography

Melinda Cooper is a social political theorist whose work focuses on the recent history of capitalism and its intersections with politics, class, gender, and race. She is the author of several influential monographs, including "Counterrevolution: Extravagance, Austerity, Public Finance" (Zone Books/Princeton University Press, 2024), "Family Values: Neoliberalism and the New Social Conservatism" (Zone Books, 2017), and "Life Surplus: Biotechnology, Capitalism, and the Neoliberal Era" (University of Washington Press, 2008). Additionally, she co-authored "Clinical Labor: Tissue Donors and Research Subjects in the Global Economy" (Duke University Press, 2014) with Catherine Waldby. Cooper is also involved in the ANU Capitalism Studies Network as a co-founder and co-director and serves as an editorial advisor for Phenomenal World Books, a series aiming to build political economy discourses through scholarly and practical analysis. Her academic qualifications include a BA with honors, a DEA from Université Paris VIII, and a PhD from the same university, focusing on the genesis question in the thought of Deleuze and Guattari.

Research Interests