Here’s a traditional head shot

Here’s another head shot. This one has a cool shadow and it looks like I’m staring into the abyss. Or maybe towards something greater. You decide.

Christopher A. Cooper is Robert Lee Madison Distinguished Professor and Director of the Haire Institute for Public Policy at Western Carolina University.

Christopher A. Cooper is Robert Lee Madison Distinguished Professor and Director of the Haire Institute for Public Policy at Western Carolina University. He is the co-author of The Resilience of Southern Identity: Why the South Still Matters in the Minds of its People, co-editor of The New Politics of North Carolina and author of the forthcoming Anatomy of a Purple State: A North Carolina Politics Primer (all from UNC Press) as well as more than 50 peer reviewed journal articles. He has served as an expert witness on elections and voting rights cases and is a frequent source for journalists seeking expertise or a snappy quote about American, southern, and North Carolina politics. He once had a tostada named after him at a local Mexican restaurant. That restaurant later burned down. These facts are likely unrelated.

Christopher A. Cooper is Robert Lee Madison Distinguished Professor and Director of the Haire Institute for Public Policy at Western Carolina University. He has received Western Carolina University’s highest awards for research (University Scholar) and teaching (Board of Governors Teaching Award) and was named the 2013 North Carolina Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Cooper’s published academic research features over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters on NC politics, state and local politics, southern politics, and elections. He is the co-author of The Resilience of Southern Identity: Why the South Still Matters in the Minds of its People, co-editor of The New Politics of North Carolina (published by the University of North Carolina Press), and author of the forthcoming Anatomy of a Purple State: A North Carolina Politics Primer (all from UNC Press)

Cooper is a frequent source for news stories about American, North Carolina politics and Southern politics has been quoted thousands of times in a variety of media including the New York Times, Washington Post, New Yorker, Christian Science Monitor, Boston Herald, Al Jazeera, Charlotte Observer, Asheville-Citizen Times, The Hill, National Journal, Raleigh News and Observer, North Carolina Insider National Public Radio (All Things Considered and Morning Edition), USA Today, CNN, FOX News, WUNC, Blue Ridge Public Radio, WFAE (Charlotte) ABC News, and ESPN.com, among other outlets. He has served as an expert witness on elections and voting rights cases and was been called “obsessive about North Carolina politics, but in a good way” on the New Yorker Radio Hour.” He once had a tostada named after him at a local Mexican restaurant. That restaurant later burned down. These facts are unrelated.