About

Barbara M. Cooper is a Professor of History at Rutgers University, holding a Ph.D. from Boston University and a B.A. from St. John’s College in Annapolis. Her academic training spans the Western tradition's 'great books' to the languages and cultures of Africa, with additional experience in experiential learning and art. Her doctoral work at the African Studies Center of Boston University involved the Hausa language, the political economy of agriculture, and the anthropology of gender. Her research focuses on the social and cultural history of West Africa, particularly the former French colonies of the Sahel, with a special emphasis on Niger, where she has conducted fieldwork for thirty years. She draws upon oral and archival sources to reconstruct historical narratives and has authored three books and numerous articles and chapters on Niger and the Sahel region. Her scholarly interests include intersections between culture and political economy, gender, law, health, religion, agriculture, and family life. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses related to African history, health, and gender studies.

Research topics

• Virology
• Medicine
• Nursing
• Engineering
• Environmental health
• Emergency medicine
• Telecommunications
• Gerontology
• Internal medicine
• Geography
• Pathology
• Family medicine

Selected publications

• Entretien avec Barbara M. Cooper

  Open MIND · 2025-03-19

  otherOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Barbara M. Cooper est professeur d’histoire africaine à Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, aux États-Unis. Ses recherches portent sur le genre, la vie familiale, la religion, la santé reproductive et le droit de la famille tout particulièrement au Sahel. Elle est l’auteure de Countless Blessings : A History of Childbirth and Reproduction in the Sahel (Indiana, 2019), Evangelical Christians in the Muslim Sahel (Indiana, 2006) et Marriage in Maradi : Gender and Culture in a Hausa Society in Niger, 1900-1989 (Heinemann, 1997). Elle est coéditrice avec Catherine Baroin du recueil La Honte au Sahel (Sépia, 2018). Son projet actuel propose des études de cas de débats historiques sur le christianisme en Afrique, provisoirement intitulé Conversations chrétiennes.

  OA PDFDOI

• An appreciation of the gifts of Jane Guyer

  Hau Journal of Ethnographic Theory · 2025-07-30

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Varieties of Infertility

  2023-02-23

  book-chapter

  Abstract Through the life stories of six women, this chapter identifies the different circumstances in which a woman is considered infertile in Niamey, Niger. Some women have had repeated miscarriages or never experienced a pregnancy in their lifetimes and may be experiencing sterility. In other cases, women have had a child, but infant mortality renders them childless and infertile in the eyes of society. In a third set of circumstances, women have given birth and raised a child, but because of their families’ and society’s exhortation to produce many offspring, they are seen as lacking and thus infertile. While their stories are distinct, common themes emerge in interviews with women facing sterility, the loss of children, and subfertility. Women who encounter fertility constraints—whether they have or have not been able to become pregnant—question their own identity and womanhood. Some women without children find fulfillment outside the maternal framework, through fostering, religious devotion, and politics; but these cases are the exception rather than the rule.

  PublisherDOI

• Dedication

  2023-02-23

  book-chapter

  Extract I dedicate this book to my father, who was unexpectedly taken away from us; my beloved daughter Gaïcha, otherwise affectionately known as Tamarwalt; my dear grandmother Hadjé Derey, to whom I owe everything.

  PublisherDOI

• Confronting the Biomedical Sphere

  2023-02-23

  book-chapter

  Abstract This chapter examines the quality of care for women seeking reproductive health services at health clinics in Niamey, Niger. Whether it is to pursue treatment for infertility, give birth, or obtain contraception, issues ranging from miscommunication to medical violence arise that are rooted in the asymmetrical power relationship between providers and clients. Crucial decisions regarding a woman’s body are often made without her prior consent under the guise of an emergency. Surgical procedures such as tuboplasties and hysterectomies are sometimes carried out without the patient’s agreement or understanding. Despite widespread rumors about their harmful effects, some women go to clinics to obtain contraception. But once there, women are met with long waiting times and inconsiderate staff. Interviewees report being treated rudely by nurses and midwives if they are not their friends or of equal or higher social status. Women say they feel tense, dehumanized, intimidated, and disrespected in their interactions with health professionals. Health clinic staff talk about particular women—notably, those with less formal education and income—as being “bad patients.” While medical facilities ought to provide the best fertility management options for women, systemic problems within those spaces make it hard for women to use them.

  PublisherDOI

• List of Figures and Tables

  2023-02-23

  other

  Subject Public Health Collection: Oxford Scholarship Online

  PublisherDOI

• Acronyms

  2023-02-23

  other

  Subject Public Health Collection: Oxford Scholarship Online

  PublisherDOI

• Editors’ Introduction

  2023-02-23

  otherSenior author

  Extract Yearning and Refusal explores the practical and emotional realities of women’s reproductive health in a Muslim majority country, the Republic of Niger. The book examines two dimensions of reproductive health that are crucial to improving the well-being of women in West Africa and elsewhere. Both, paradoxically, concern failures to produce children. The author, Hadiza Moussa, reveals the lived experience of women who are struggling with infertility, on the one hand, and of women who refuse to become or to remain pregnant, on the other. Her empirical research draws attention to phenomena societal leaders, politicians, and public health specialists have tended to evade or neglect. Almost no work uniting these issues—infertility and contraception—under a common theoretical framework has been written. Yet infertility and contraception are the poles that define the reproductive experiences of many women. Focusing her research in Niamey, the capital city of Niger, Moussa sets out the existential experience of failed fertility; its physical, emotional, and social implications; and how it undermines women’s standing within their marriages, households, and society as a whole. Drawing upon interviews, participant observation, and her intimate knowledge of Nigerien society, she depicts the stark realities that women face, to lay bare the emotional and social consequences of the failure to address effectively either the problem of infertility or the problem of unwanted pregnancies. By seeking out contraception and illicit abortions, women in Niamey refuse to produce children willy-nilly, despite the pressures of their husbands, in-laws, and society as a whole. Moussa shows that women are far from passive with regard to their fertility and have long sought ways to control it. Yet the strategies available to them do not fundamentally challenge or alter dominant sexual and reproductive norms.

  PublisherDOI

• Managing Infertility

  2023-02-23

  book-chapter

  Abstract This chapter explores the multitude of practices women and families engage in to protect against and counter the problem of infertility. Traditional practices and popular healing techniques, which often have a preventative focus, are of greater significance in this domain than the formal medical services in Niger. Taboos on contact with particular settings, objects, and substances associated with spirits or the jealousy of others protect women and newborns. Muslim specialists are called upon to treat possible infertility through the use of holy water, amulets, and blessings, as well as various natural substances. Healers, both local and regional, may be called upon to perform rituals to call upon spirits for protection or cure. Infertility can be countered socially through polygamy, the fostering of children, divorce and remarriage to a more fertile partner, and adultery.

  PublisherDOI

• The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe COVID-19 Pandemic Response: A Case Study

  Health Security · 2023-05-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe of southeastern Massachusetts requested US federal government assistance. The tribe collaborated successfully with many partners in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this case study, the authors describe the tribe's collaboration with a team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who assisted with epidemiology, case investigation and contact tracing, infection prevention and control, community prevention measures, and vaccination. Collaborative efforts resulted in over 200 public service announcements and videos produced, 55 tribal staff trained, 222 people followed up for contact tracing, 80% of tribal members vaccinated, and 5 COVID-19 response plans written. Deployment response teams learned elements essential to partnering with a Native American tribe. This successful partnership during a rapidly evolving pandemic suggests the US federal government and tribal nations can work together effectively to build response capacity for future infectious disease threats.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Cheikh Anta Babou

  California University of Pennsylvania

  108 shared

• Thaddeus Sunseri

  Colorado State University

  37 shared

• Ferdinand De Jong

  New Europe College

  36 shared

• Katharina Schramm

  Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

  36 shared

• Tony Roshan Samara

  36 shared

• Derek Peterson 

  Durham University

  36 shared

• Nicholas M. Creary

  36 shared

• Brett-Smith 

  University of Pennsylvania

  36 shared

Education

• Ph.D., History

  University of California, Berkeley

  1990

• M.A., History

  University of California, Berkeley

  1985

• B.A., History

  University of California, Santa Barbara

  1982

Awards & honors

• Melville J. Herskovits Prize of the African Studies Associat…
• Finalist for the Melvin J. Herskovits Award of the African S…
• Resident Fellow Institut d’Etudes Avancées de Paris, France,…
• Resident Fellow, IAU College, Aix-en-Provence, France, Sprin…
• Mellon New Directions Fellowship 2008-2010 for training in d…