She did her BA (Hons) at the University of Greenwich and her MSc in accounting and finance at the London School of Economics.

After obtaining her PhD, with a dissertation entitled "The Impact of Accounting on Our Everyday Lives", she took a position as lecturer at Ealing College of Higher Education.

Her published research has covered: Cooper's most cited paper, "The Non and Nom of Accounting for (M)other Nature," offers a feminist critique of accounting, particularly its capacity to function as a tool for reporting on environmental performance.

The article follows Hélène Cixous in adopting the word "feminine" rather than "feminist," in order to challenge what Cooper sees as the masculine symbolic structures of accounting.

In addition to serving as co-editor-in-chief of Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Cooper sits on the editorial boards of several peer-reviewed academic journals, including: The following articles have each been cited over 100 times, according to Google Scholar: