SJ Cooper-Knock

Department of Sociological Studies

Senior Lecturer in Criminology

(She/they)

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S.J.Cooper-Knock@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 6798

Full contact details

SJ Cooper-Knock
Department of Sociological Studies
Elmfield Building
Northumberland Road
Sheffield
S10 2TU
Profile

SJ's research focuses on the politics of urban in life in South Africa. The current focus of her work includes: everyday policing and punishment; being and belonging in the city; the politics of crisis; and concepts of urban justice.

SJ completed her undergraduate in History and Politics (BA Hons) at the University of Nottingham. Later, she studied for her MPhil and DPhil in International Development at the University of Oxford.

SJ worked at the London School of Economics and Political Science in International Development before moving to the University of Edinburgh where she was jointly appointed by Social Anthropology and the Centre of African Studies.

SJ joined The University of Sheffield as a joint appointment between the Department of Sociological Studies and the School of Law in 2021. SJ is also a member of the Sheffield Institute for International Development and the Centre for Criminological Research.

SJ is also an Associate Researcher at ACMS at the University of the Witwatersrand. She is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Southern African Studies and Critical African Studies.

Qualifications
  • PhD, University of Oxford
  • MPhil, University of Oxford
  • BA(hons) University of Nottingham
Research interests

SJ's research focuses on the politics of urban in life in South Africa. The current focus of her work includes: everyday policing and punishment; being and belonging in the city; the politics of crisis; and concepts of urban justice. It includes:

  • Everyday Policing and Punishment, exploring different forms of policing and punishment and their consequences in South Africa with a range of collaborators including Dr Gail Super and Kamau Wairuri.
  • Off-grid Cities, exploring elite off-grid decisions around energy and their broader consequences for sustainability and justice with Gauteng City Regional Observatory, University of Cambridge, University of the Western Cape, and University of the Witwatersrand.
  • Magistrates Courts in South Africa and Uganda with Dr Anna Macdonald (University of East Anglia).
  • Moving Words Project exploring migration, being, and belonging in Johannesburg with Dr Duduzile Ndlovu (ACMS, Wits).
  • The Lockdown Diary Project exploring the experience of 70 residents across Cape Town from occupied buildings, informal settlements, townships and suburbs with Dr Fiona Anciano, Mmeli Dube, Mfundo Majola, and Boitumelo Papane (University of the Western Cape).
  • The Politics of Fire Project exploring informal settlement fire in the Western Cape with the IRIS Fire Team (University of Edinburgh, University of the Western Cape, University of Stellenbosch).
Publications

Journal articles

Chapters

  • Cooper-Knock SJ (2021) A moral economy of citizenship post-apartheid South Africa?, Political Values and Narratives of Resistance: Social Justice and the Fractured Promises of Post-colonial States (pp. 55-72). RIS download Bibtex download
Research group

SJ is a member of the Sheffield Institute for International Development and the Centre for Criminological Research.

Teaching interests

SJ teaches on a range of criminology modules in the School of Law and the Department of Sociological Studies.

Teaching activities

The undergraduate modules SJ teaches are:

  • LAW147 Situating Crime
  • LAW21004 Gender, Race and Crime
  • SCS2009 The Sociology of Crime and Deviance

The postgraduate modules SJ teaches are:

  • LAW6173 Research Process
Professional activities and memberships
  • Editorial Board Journal of Southern African Studies
  • Editorial Board Critical African Studies