Professor and Department Chair
Ph.D., Vanderbilt University
Areas of Specialization:
- American Government: Political Parties
- Women’s Political Advocacy
- Congress
Scholarly achievements and activities:
- Co-principal Investigator, Convention Delegate Study (CDS), 2004, 2012, 2016, 2020. The
CDS, created in 1972, is the longest standing survey of Democratic and Republican party
activists. - Guest Expert, 2018 Gender Watch, 2016 Presidential Gender Watch. This project, cosponsored by the Center for American Women in Politics and the Barbara Lee Family
Foundation, tracked, analyzed, and illuminated gender dynamics in the 2016 and 2018
presidential and congressional elections. - “On the Money: Assessing the Campaign Finance Networks of Women Congressional
Candidates,” in Nichole Bauer, ed., Politicking White Female: The Political Life of
Women. Louisiana State University Press. Forthcoming 2020. - “Standing on Their Shoulders: Suffragists, Women’s PACs, and Demands for Women’s
Representation,” (with Melody Crowder-Meyer) in Symposium on the 100th Anniversary of
the 19th Amendment, P.S.: Political Science and Politics. Forthcoming, 2020. - “Group Commitment among U.S. Party Factions: A Perspective from Democratic and
Republican National Convention Delegates,” (with Kimberly Conger, Geoffrey Layman,
Gregory Shufeldt, Ozan Kalkan, and Richard Herrera). 2019. American Politics
Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X19850081 - “Can’t Buy Them Love: How Party Culture among Donors Contributes to the Party Gap in
Women’s Representation,” (with Melody Crowder-Meyer). 2018. The Journal of Politics 80, no.
4 (October 2018): 1211-1224. https://doi.org/10.1086/698848 - “A Run for Their Money: Republican Women’s Hard Road to Campaign Funding,” (with
Melody Crowder-Meyer) in Shauna Shames and Malliga Och, eds., 2018. The Right Women:
Republican Party Activists, Candidates, and Legislators. Praeger Press. - “Teaching Race and Revolution: Doing Justice to Women’s Roles in the Struggle for Civil
Rights,” (with Melina Patterson and Jess Rigelhaupt). 2016. P.S.: Political Science and
Politics, 49(3): 558-61. - “Where Are the Women? Women Candidates and the Virginia Republican Party,” (with
Samantha Bradshaw, UMW alumna). 2011. Virginia Social Science Journal, 46(1): 19-38. - “Activists and Conflict Extension in American Party Politics,” (with Geoffrey Layman,
Thomas Carsey, John C. Green, and Richard Herrera.) 2010. American Political Science
Review, 104(2): 324-46.
Awards:
- 2017 Recipient, John M. Kramer Award for Outstanding Faculty Member, UMW
Department of Political Science - Recipient of the 2012 Jack L. Walker Outstanding Article
Award, Political Organizations and Parties Section, American Political Science
Association.
Contact Information:
To contact Professor Cooperman, send an e-mail at: rcooperm@umw.edu