Assistant Professor, Department of Humanities
Coming to San José State University from the University of South Florida in Tampa, Tova Cooper is one of the newest faculty members in the Department of Humanities. Having studied at UC Berkeley, Columbia University, and UC Irvine during her own academic career, Cooper brings a wealth of experience and a love of teaching that finds expression in her dedication to her students. She enjoys being in the classroom, experiencing moments where students become animated and engaged first hand; in doing so, she learns as much from her students as her students do from her.
“As an educator, I thrive on creating an atmosphere where students can make connections between ideas they did not previously see as connected and articulate those ideas both in class and in writing,” Cooper elaborates. “To me, the ability to make and articulate such connections is one of the most valuable characteristics of critical thinking.”
Cooper’s academic interests include literature, history, education, and visual studies, with emphasis on the places in which these areas overlap. She is a published scholar and her most recent book, The Autobiography of Citizenship: Assimilation and Resistance in US Education, was published in December 2014. She is also the author of many articles, including “On Autobiography, Boy Scouts, and Citizenship: Revisiting Charles Eastman’s Deep Woods” and “Zora Neale Hurston and Modernism at the Critical Limit,” both of which explore the boundaries of literature and where literary works intersect with, and are influenced by, historical events.
When not in the classroom, Cooper enjoys creating ceramic art, gardening, hiking, and spending time with her family, which includes her poet lawyerate husband, Stan Apps, and her two children, Leo and August. She is excited not only to take advantage of the cultural aspects of the Bay Area, but also to enjoy the ample outdoor activities offered by the areas surrounding San José State University.
