Fraser Barry Cooper was born in Vancouver on 3 September 1943. As a teenager, he attended the Shawinagan Lake School, a private school on Vancouver Island. After completing high school in 1962, he attended the University of British Columbia, graduating with an Honors B.A. in Political Science in 1965. He received his graduate degrees at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina in 1967 and 1969.
His first teaching position was at Bishop's University in Lennoxville, Quebec during the 1969-1970 session. In 1970 he taught at McGill University as a visiting assistant professor. Later that year he was hired as an assistant professor by York University, where he remained for the next ten years, being promoted to associate professor in 1976. In 1981 he moved to the University of Calgary Department of Political Science as a full professor.
Dr. Cooper has written numerous books and journal articles on the subjects of political philosophy, the media and Canada's constitutional crisis. He is frequently sought after as a speaker and has delivered papers at numerous Canadian, American, French, German and Czech Learned Society meetings, at several Canadian, American, German and Indian Universities, and at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing and The Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. He is a regular contributor of journalistic articles to national and local newspapers and magazines, and has appeared on national and local radio and television. As a consultant, Dr. Cooper has undertaken research in the area of political culture and political risk analysis for major oil companies, media analysis for federal and provincial government Departments and for national political parties.
Dr. Cooper has been awarded numerous honours, fellowships and research awards for his work as a teacher, a writer and a researcher. In 1993, in recognition of his contribution to academia, he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada; other honours include Senior Fellow of the Fraser Institute (1999), Fellow of the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies (2000), Research Fellow for the Institute for Health Economics (2001-2005), Fellow of the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute/Canadian Global Affairs Institute (2005-present), Chair of Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Policy for the Frontier Centre for Public Policy (2015-2016), and Manager Director of the Fraser Institute, Alberta Policy Research Centre (2001-2005).
As of 2021, Cooper is the author of 37 books, most recently Consciousness and Politics: From Analysis to Meditation in the late work of Eric Voegelin (2018), ¬Paleolithic Politics: The Human Community in Early Art (2020), and COVID-19: The Politics of a Pandemic Moral Panic (2021). He has also authored close to 200 articles, chapters and reports. In 2013 Cooper was presented with a festschrift in his honour: Hunting and Weaving: Empiricism and Political Philosophy.
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Fonds consists of records created and collected by Dr. Cooper over a forty year period in his various professional and personal roles as student; university professor, supervisor and advisor; colleague; scholar; author; consultant; son; father; and friend.
Acquired from Barry Cooper between 1998 and 2023
Some files are restricted for a period of 25 years from the date of creation
Only the records from 98.027 are currently available in the finding aid.
Title based on contents of series.
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Series consists of correspondence carried on between Barry Cooper, his family, friends, students, colleagues, prospective employers and others; school memorabilia; essays and articles submitted to school magazines; references written for students, colleagues and others; articles and essays written by others and submitted to Cooper for comment. The series, the largest in the fonds with an extent roughly one third of the whole, is divided into four sub-series, including: (1) school and undergraduate
correspondence and associated material, 1959-1964; (2) general correspondence, 1974-1994; (3) student correspondence, references and associated material, 1981-1989, 1991-1994; (4) correspondence with individuals, 1976-1994. Correspondence with some individuals may appear in more than one sub-series.
Series is arranged in
chronological order, though the internal order of some files is
slightly disorganised.
Title based on contents of sub-series.
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Sub-series consists of correspondence, school essays and speeches, articles written for submission to school magazines, school memorabilia, school trip to Ottawa, graduate school applications and related material.
Some extraneous items have been removed from this sub-series.
Title based on contents of sub-series.
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General correspondence files were used by Cooper as catch-all files for records of his personal, professional and business correspondence and activities. The files contain personal and professional correspondence, memos, greeting cards, invitations, invoices, programmes and other miscellanea.
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Sub-series consists of correspondence with and concerning current and former students; references and academic appraisals; student opinion surveys of Cooper's teaching; proposed research programs and thesis abstracts; oral exam notices; and curricula vitae.
Restrictions on access: Some files are restricted for a period of 25 years from date of creation.
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Restrictions on access: Some files are restricted for a period of 25 years from date of creation.
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Restrictions on access: Some files are restricted for a period of 25 years from date of creation.
Title based on contents of sub-series.
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Sub-series contains records of Cooper's regular and ongoing communication with a few individuals, each of whose letters are filed together in separate folders. Records consist of correspondence, curricula vitae, letters of reference and appraisals of academic abilities, newsclippings, and magazine articles.
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Title based on contents of series.
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Series consists of applications for funding for research projects, sabbatical fellowships and proposed conferences; correspondence with funding bodies, university officials, well-wishers, conference organisers, publishers and others; final reports of research projects and sabbaticals; financial reports of expenditures; conference programmes; newsclippings; and leaflets. Series also includes two files relating to Cooper's election as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (FRSC) and his nomination of another academic for membership in the Society.
Series is arranged in chronological order by date of award's tenure. Files' original titles and internal order have been maintained
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Series consists of records pertaining to conferences which Cooper attended and participated in, and several which he helped to organize; and to other speaking engagements where Cooper was invited to give lectures as a guest speaker or to participate in
discussions or debates. Records include conference programmes; participant lists; advertising posters and leaflets; correspondence; abstracts; draft and typescript copies of papers presented by Cooper and other participants; research notes; curricula vitae; applications for conference and travel funding; financial reports of expenditures; and newsclippings.
Series is arranged in chronological order by year of conference or other event. File titles taken from original file folders.
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Series consists of records created during Cooper's researching, writing and publication of scholarly books and articles, magazine and newspaper articles, and book reviews. Records include research notes and material (or "Data"); annotated drafts and typescripts of manuscripts; offprints and photocopies of published papers; magazines containing published articles; correspondence with publishers, co-authors, readers and reviewers; royalty statements; and reviews. The series is divided into three sub-series, including: (1) Books, [ca.1982]-1996; (2) Articles and Research Notes, [ca.1973]-1993; (3) Newspapers, Magazines and Book Reviews, 1980-1993.
Series is arranged in chronological order. File titles were transferred from original file folders.
Title based on contents of sub-series.
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Sub-series consists of research notes (termed "data" by Cooper), drafts, and typescripts of book manuscripts, correspondence with co-authors, publishing companies, readers and reviewers.
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Sub-series contains scholarly articles in draft and final form, research notes and raw data, offprints of published articles, and correspondence with publishers, co-authors and editors.
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Sub-series consists of articles, correspondence with publishers and readers, royalty statements, research material and notes.
Subseries is e arranged in two chronological sequences, with articles placed before book reviews.
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Title based on file titles created by Cooper.
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Series contains items relating to Cooper's professional activities which he collected to assist him in completing his Annual Report for the University. The first folder in the series is Cooper's "vitae" file, containing numerous cv's written during his career. The remaining files, which Cooper entitled "Activities", contain correspondence regarding a wide range of activities; lists of courses he taught and student enrollment; newsletters indicating some activity he was involved in; reviews by Cooper of other academics' manuscripts and research projects for publishers and granting bodies; book reviews written by Cooper; notices of graduate students' exams; copies of articles written; publisher's lists of books indicating Cooper's publications, etc.
Series is arranged in chronological order and files contain records for one or two years.
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Title based on contents of series.
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Series contains correspondence, clippings, and reports, mainly to do with Cooper's involvement with the Progressive Conservative Party.
Title is based on contents of series.
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Series consists of records created or collected by Cooper while acting in a consultative role to various organisations interested either in media coverage of their activities, or in confidential briefings about the countries to which they were sending personnel.
Series is arranged in two chronological sequences, with all
media-related files placed before "briefing" files.
Restrictions on access: Some files are restricted for a period of 25 years from date of creation.
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Restrictions on access: Some files are restricted for a period of 25 years from date of creation.
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Restrictions on access: Some files are restricted for a period of 25 years from date of creation.
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Restrictions on access: Some files are restricted for a period of 25 years from date of creation.
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Restrictions on access: Some files are restricted for a period of 25 years from date of creation.
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Restrictions on access: Some files are restricted for a period of 25 years from date of creation.
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Restrictions on access: Some files are restricted for a period of 25 years from date of creation.
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Restrictions on access: Some files are restricted for a period of 25 years from date of creation.
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Restrictions on access: Some files are restricted for a period of 25 years from date of creation.
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Restrictions on access: Some files are restricted for a period of 25 years from date of creation.
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Restrictions on access: Some files are restricted for a period of 25 years from date of creation.
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Restrictions on access: Some files are restricted for a period of 25 years from date of creation.
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Restrictions on access: Some files are restricted for a period of 25 years from date of creation.
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Restrictions on access: Some files are restricted for a period of 25 years from date of creation.
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Restrictions on access: Some files are restricted for a period of 25 years from date of creation.
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Restrictions on access: Some files are restricted for a period of 25 years from date of creation.
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Restrictions on access: Some files are restricted for a period of 25 years from date of creation.
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Restrictions on access: Some files are restricted for a period of 25 years from date of creation.
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Restrictions on access: Some files are restricted for a period of 25 years from date of creation.
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Restrictions on access: Some files are restricted for a period of 25 years from date of creation.
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Restrictions on access: Some files are restricted for a period of 25 years from date of creation.