Glenda Cooper's thesis title is 'From our own correspondents? How user-generated content is altering the power dynamics in reporting humanitarian crises'. The proposal aims to discover whether the increasing availability of words and images produced by ordinary people are changing anything about the way news organisations report humanitarian crises, or the way that aid agencies respond to them.

Cooper has undertaken an MA in English Language and Literature St Hilda's College, Oxford (1990-3), a postgraduate diploma in Newspaper Journalism, City University (1994) as well as an MA in Creative Writing City University, London (2006).

Before returning to study, she was a journalist working at national level for over a decade including the BBC and Channel 4 News, the Independent, Daily Mail, Washington Post (as the 2001 Laurence Stern Fellow), Daily Telegraph and Sunday Times. She was the 14th Guardian Research Fellow, Nuffield College Oxford (2006-7); visiting fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism 2007-8; and associate member of Nuffield College Oxford 2008-11.

Her research interests focus upon user-generated content, reporting of NGOs and humanitarian issues, conflict reporting.