Amy Cooter is a senior lecturer in Sociology at Vanderbilt University. She aims to understand how masculinity and whiteness are intersecting, lived experiences that shape people's attitudes about nationalism and racial politics in contemporary US society. Cooter recently studied how Michigan Militia members understand themselves as a group that lauds an historical moment where white men had a monopoly of social power, but who see themselves as the last line of defense for American values of equality and justice.