Jane Cooper is a professional researcher and writer whose interests span from local history to international politics. For more than twenty-five years, she has been bringing to life stories from the past and present, drawing on extensive research and hands-on experience in Canada and abroad.
She is constantly exploring new ways to make history and politics accessible and understandable in a national and international context. Her published work spans: a walking tour focused on late 19th century Ontario architecture; an illustrated children’s book using museum artifacts to tell the story of a champion hockey team; an edited collection of First World War letters showing how rural Ontario soldiers drew strength from their girls back home; a full-length biography of a forgotten Toronto opera singer who had an unlikely career on the stages of Russia and Poland; and, a lyrical essay about an Ottawa area painter and the heritage of the landscapes that inspire him. Her latest manuscript takes the form of a young adult historical novel about the controversies that sparked when German prisoners of war worked on Canadian farms during the Second World War.
Publications: A non-fiction thriller about monitoring Ukrainian elections (in press, McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2024); two edited collections of historical correspondence (JMD Media, 2011 and Osgoode Township Museum, 2014); a full-length historical biography (Freisen Press 2017); five literary essays (Queen’s Quarterly, Spring and Fall 2019, Winter 2021; Opera Canada, 2019; Alberta History, 2012); twenty-five public policy reports (The Conference Board of Canada, 2016-2022.)
Photo credit: Amanda Thirkill.