Recently appointed JTS's new Provost, Dr. Cooper has been Professor of Bible and Director of Publications at JTS since 1997 and the Elaine Ravich Professor of Jewish Studies since 2005. He is chair of the Bible Department and a member of the Faculty Executive Committee. In 1998, he was appointed Professor of Bible at the Union Theological Seminary, a nondenominational Christian seminary, becoming the first person to hold professorships at both JTS and Union. He previously was a professor of Bible at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, where for six years he was director of its School of Graduate Studies, and he also taught religious studies for ten years at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

Dr. Cooper earned a bachelor’s degree in religious studies at Columbia University. He went on to do his graduate work at Yale University, earning a master of philosophy degree and doctorate in religious studies. His doctoral dissertation was on the linguistic structure of biblical poetry. He also spent a year in Jerusalem as a Hebrew University Postdoctoral Fellow.