Daniel Cooper

Daniel Cooper is an M.A. candidate in History at Florida State University. His major field is Modern European History, with research specializing in Central European History between 1800 and 1950, focusing on nationalism, interactions between ethnic groups, Judaism, and borderlands within the German- and Polish-speaking world. He is particularly interested in the eastern marches of the German Empire and Galicia.

Daniel holds a B.A. in History and a B.A. in German, both from the University of Alabama. Daniel's most recent papers include a study of the life of Hans Frank, the General Governor of Nazi-occupied Poland, and of the 1863-64 January Uprising in Congress Poland, studying its effects on the development of Polish ideas of nationhood. He is currently working on two research papers. The first is focused on the Königlich Preußische Ansiedlungskommission in den Provinzen Westpreußen und Posen (Royal Prussian Settlement Commission in the Provinces West Prussia and Posen) as a method of internal colonization and demographic engineering, and how a combination of factors, including creative methods of Polish resistance, led to its failure. The second paper focuses on the influence of European Jewish migrants to the United States on United States-based Zionist organizations and their ideological conceptions of Zionism between the 1880s and the creation of Israel in 1948.

Daniel is a trained actor and, since coming to FSU, has taken a role in fellow student Danielle Wirsansky's theater company, White Mouse Productions, acting in a shadow cast and preparing to direct upcoming plays in the spring 2026 semester. In his free time, he enjoys learning new languages: Daniel holds a B2-level certificate in German and A2-level certificates in Polish, Swedish & French. He is currently learning Biblical Hebrew with Dr. David Levenson of the Department of Religion and plans to study Modern Hebrew in the near future.