Professor Cooper is an expert in the challenges that arise when legal systems and actors interact with scientific expertise and uncertainty, with her published research being cited widely by scholars, courts, lawyers, and in treatises. Her research cuts across disciplines and utilities mixed methods. Her current collaborations with legal practitioners include projects to analyse and model compassionate release procedures, update professional guidelines for US capital cases, and conceptualise science literacy for lawyers. She is also working with psychologists to statistically examine juror certainty about expert testimony and healthcare professionals to develop Fitness to Practice simulations that prepare healthcare students and practitioners to account for their practice in legal contexts.
Professor Cooper holds/has held Visiting Scholar positions at the Arizona Justice Project, Amicus, and Arizona State University. In 2017, she was a Scholar in Residence at the Law Library of the United States Congress, and will be the Library’s selected speaker for its 2023 Human Rights Day programme. Since 2020, she has been a Visiting Professor at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University in New York, where she teaches a skills workshop called ‘Lawyering and Science.’
Professor Cooper has been a peer reviewer for the British Academy, National Science Foundation, and International Journal of Criminal Law and Evidence. She has received/managed funding grants from the BCU STEAM and Small Development Grant Funds, Leverhulme Trust and British Academy, Office for Students and UKRI, Law Library of United States Congress, and the Community University Partnership Initiative/AHRC.
Professor Cooper is an experienced PhD supervisor and examiner. Her doctoral supervision portfolio includes projects examining how legal systems examine vaccine science, social science, neuroscience, agency science, environmental science, and medical diagnoses.
Access Professor Cooper’s published work.
Sarah’s Twitter: @sarahlucycoope1
