Home>Austin R. Cooper

Austin R. Cooper

Associate Researcher

Center for International Studies (CERI)

Duration: from 04 January 2023 to 31 August 2025

Research Interest(s): Essais nucléaires, histoire internationale, technologies et savoirs

Discipline(s): History

Subdiscipline(s): International Relations

Research Group(s): Security, defence, nuclear weapons, Science, technology and power

Geographical Area(s): West Africa, North Africa, North America, Western Europe

Country(ies): Algeria, United States of America, France

Language(s): English, French

Biography

Beginning Fall 2023, Austin R. Cooper is an Assistant Professor of History at Purdue University. He was a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow in the Security Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a predoctoral fellow in the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) at Stanford University. He was also a visiting PhD student in the Nuclear Knowledges program with the CERI at SciencesPo Paris. His research has appeared in the Nonproliferation Review, Cold War History, and the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. He holds a PhD in History and Sociology of Science from the University of Pennsylvania.

Teaching

The Nuclear Age, Undergrad, Purdue University, Fall 2023

publications

2023. “How to Hide a Nuclear Explosion: French Secrets about Saharan Fallout across Decolonizing Africa,” in Making the Unseen Visible: Science and the Contested Histories of Radiation Exposure, ed. Jacob D. Hamblin and Linda M. Richards, Oregon State University Press (forthcoming).

2023. "The Argentella scandal: Why French officials did not make Corsica a nuclear test site in 1960," Nonproliferation Review (April): 1-23.

2022. “The Tunisian Request: Saharan Fallout, U.S. Assistance, and the Making of the International Atomic Energy Agency,” Cold War History 22, no. 4 (Aug): 407–36.

2022. With Thomas Fraise. “France struggled to relinquish Algeria as a nuclear test site, archives reveal,” The Conversation (Aug 3) . Originally published with Thomas Fraise in French as “Les obstinations nucléaires des dirigeants français en Algérie indépendante,” The Conversation (July 4).

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