Rate My Professor Joseph Cooper

Joseph N. Cooper serves as the inaugural Dr. J. Keith Motley Endowed Chair of Sport Leadership and Administration and Professor in the Department of Counseling, School Psychology, and Sport at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Previously, he was an associate professor in the Sport Management program in the Department of Educational Leadership at the University of Connecticut's Neag School of Education. He earned his PhD in Kinesiology with a concentration in Sport Management and Policy from the University of Georgia, MA in Sport Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Department of Exercise and Sport Science, and two BA degrees in Sociology and Recreation Administration from UNC-Chapel Hill.

Cooper's research agenda centers on the intersections of sport, education, race, gender, and culture, particularly sport's potential as a vehicle for holistic (under)development, resistance, and social justice. He is the author of From Exploitation Back to Empowerment: Black Male Holistic (Under)Development Through Sport and (Mis)Education (Peter Lang, 2019), A Legacy of African American Resistance and Activism Through Sport (Peter Lang, 2021), and Black Sporting Resistance: Diaspora, Transnationalism, and Internationalism (2025). Notable peer-reviewed articles include "Race and resistance: A typology of African American sport activism" (International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 2019), "Excellence beyond athletics: Best practices for enhancing black male student athletes' educational experiences and outcomes" (Equity & Excellence in Education, 2016), and "A critical race theory analysis of big-time college sports: Implications for culturally responsive and race-conscious sport leadership" (Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics, 2017). His scholarship has been cited in media outlets including The New York Times, ESPN, and the Boston Globe. Among his honors are the 2019 UConn NAACP Youth and College Chapter Faculty Lifetime Achievement Award, 2018 Sociology of Sport Journal Outstanding Early Career Research Award, and 2016 UConn Neag School of Education Outstanding Early Career Scholar Award. Cooper serves as co-editor of the Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics, editorial board member for several sport journals, and faculty founder of Collective Uplift. He is also the Founding Executive Director of the New Balance Institute for Innovative Leadership in Sport at UMass Boston and former Special Advisor to the Chancellor for Black Life.