Tracey-Anne Cooper

Associate Professor

St. John's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Ph.D., 2005, Boston College, HistoryM. A., 2001, Boston College, History. A. (First Class Degree Honours), 1997, Lancaster University (UK), Medieval and Renaissance Studies

Educational Background
Ph.D., 2005, Boston College, History
M. A., 2001, Boston College, History
B. A. (First Class Degree Honours), 1997, Lancaster University (UK), Medieval and Renaissance Studies

Areas of Specialization
Anglo-Saxon History, Manuscript Studies, Church History; Medieval Culture

Tracey-Anne Cooper is an Associate Professor in the History Department, where she teaches the core course, “Emergence of Global Society” and various courses on medieval Europe and medieval Britain.

Cooper joined the history department in 2006 with an M. A. and a Ph. D in Medieval History from Boston College. She graduated with honours from Lancaster University, UK in 1997 with a B. A. (first class) in Medieval and Renaissance Studies. She spent her second year as an undergraduate studying at Wellesley College, Massachusetts.

Cooper’s main area of research is Anglo-Saxon England and she is particularly interested in manuscript studies, and intellectual and religious history. Her dissertation “Reconstructing a deconstructed manuscript, community and culture: London BL Cotton Tiberius A.iii”, presented a new methodology for the field of manuscript studies in which a compilation manuscript was examined as a contextual whole. This holistic approach allowed texts which would ordinarily have been only examined by scholars in discrete fields of study to be regarded in the proximity of their original context. This method revealed a strong connection between the liturgy, monastic rules, pastoral care texts, charms and prognostics of the manuscript which had hitherto seemed to present a farrago. That connection was the various facets of the job of the archbishop, for whom, Cooper argues, this manuscript was compiled.

Cooper has published several scholarly articles in journals such as Anglo-Norman Studies, the Haskins Society Journal and Notes and Queries. She is currently in the process of revising her dissertation for publication. Cooper has also given numerous papers on her research interests at international conferences, including, the International Medieval Conference, Leeds, UK (2003, 2006); the International Medieval Congress, Kalamazoo, MI (2002, 2003, 2006); the Haskins Society Conference (1998, 2003, 2005) and the Battle Conference on Anglo-Norman Studies, Battle, UK in 2005.

‘Basan and Bata: The Occupational Surnames of Two Pre-Conquest Monks of Canterbury’, Kent Archaeological Society, October 2004. Accessible at: www.kentarchaeology.ac

‘Two Previously Unrecorded Marginal Illustrations in Cotton Tiberius A. iii’, Kent Archaeological Society, May 2005. Accessible at: www.kentarchaeology.ac

‘Tovi the Proud’s Irregular Use of the Good Friday Liturgy’, Notes and Queries 52, Issue 3 (December 2005).

‘The Homilies of a Pragmatic Archbishop’s Handbook in Context: Cotton Tiberius A. iii’, Anglo-Norman Studies28, (2006), 47-65.

‘Lay Piety, Pastoral Care and the Compiler’s Method in Late Anglo-Saxon England’, Haskins Society Journal 16, (2006).

‘Inculcating the Inner Heart of the Laity in Pre-Conquest England’, in Learned and Popular in Medieval Christianities? Conceptualizing Differences in Medieval Religiosities, Mirator 9:1 (2008).

‘Personalizing the On-line Classroom with Gateway and Web 2.0 Tools’, CTL Newsletter, St. John’s University (September 2009).

‘New Technology Applications and New Pedagogical Approaches: A Report from the Ninth MERLOT Conference’, with Susan Schmidt-Horning, CTL Newsletter, St. John’s University (October 2009).

‘Judith in Late Anglo-Saxon England’, in The Sword of Judith, ed. Kevin Brine and Henrike Laehnemann (Open Books, 2010).

‘Act of Supremacy’, ‘Anagni’, ‘Canossa’, and ‘Donation of Constantine’, New Catholic Encyclopedia Supplement 2010 (Gale: 2010).

‘Why is St. Margaret’s the Only Saint’s Life in London BL, Cotton Tiberius A. iii?’, in, The Saintly Feminine, ed. Paul Szarmach (under consideration by University of Toronto Press).

‘The Shedding of Tears in Late Anglo-Saxon England,’ in an as yet untitled volume, ed. Elina Gertsman (forthcoming, Routledge).

Courses Taught at St. John’s University

Hist1000c Emergence of a Global Society
Hist1010 World History One
Hist2005 After Rome
Hist 2501 Early Medieval Europe
Hist 2502 Later Medieval Europe
Hist3511 History of England 1
Hist3560 Women in Medieval Europe
Hist4992 Seminar in European History

Courses in Preparation

The Crusades
Mini-Session Course – Myth, Medievalism and Movies
Paris Summer Session Course – Power and Poverty in Medieval Paris

‘Piety, Masculinity, and Tears in Late Anglo-Saxon England’, International Medieval Conference, Leeds (UK), July, 2010.

‘Episcopal power, property and performance: connections between the anonymous oath codes and a cattle-theft charm in Textus Roffensis’, at Textus Roffensis: Law, Language and Libraries in Early Medieval England, University of Kent (UK), July, 2010.

‘Authority and Authorship in an Anglo-Saxon Compilation Manuscript’, Texas Medieval Association, University of Texas at Austin, October, 2009.

‘Tears and Religious Experience in Late Anglo-Saxon England’, International Medieval Congress, Kalamazoo, May, 2009.

‘The Ambivalence of Judith in Late Anglo-Saxon England’, at The Sword of Judith: A Multidisciplinary Conference, New York Public Library, April, 2008.

‘Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid: Pastoral Care for a Passionate Laity’, International Medieval Conference, Leeds (UK), July, 2006.

‘Borrowing and Bowdlerizing in Eleventh-Century Textual Culture’, International Medieval Congress, Kalamazoo, May, 2006.

‘Anglo-Saxon ‘Notes and Commonplaces’ in Context’, Haskins Society Conference, Washington D.C., 2005.

‘The Homilies of a Pragmatic Archbishop’s Handbook in Context’, The Battle Conference on Anglo-Norman Studies, Battle (UK), 2005.

‘The Confessional Directives of Cotton Tiberius A. iii’, Haskins Society Conference, Cornell University, 2003.

‘The Fabrication of Communal History at Christ Church, Canterbury’, International Medieval Conference, Leeds (UK), 2003.

‘The Cross in Rule, Homily, Liturgy and Charm: Themes from Cotton Tiberius A. iii’, International Medieval Congress, Kalamazoo, 2003.

‘The Meaning and Use of Cotton Tiberius A. iii’, International Medieval Congress, Kalamazoo, 2002.

‘The Oral and Textual Transmission of Lunar Prognostics in Anglo-Saxon England’,
Haskins Society Conference, Cornell University, 1998.

‘Queenship in Crisis – Stephen’s Queen Maud’, Boston Graduate Symposium, Boston College, 1998.