Anastasia Mann

Anastasia Mann earned her doctorate in 20th-century US history with a focus on the New Deal and WWII-era debates over social welfare policy. Her subsequent career has focused on advancing economic access and social justice for vulnerable populations. Mann has done policy work for private non-profit organizations (the Russell Sage Foundation, New Jersey Policy Perspective); taught undergraduates (Northwestern, Princeton, and Rutgers); and served on boards and commissions at the state and municipal levels (New Jersey Commission on New Americans, Princeton Human Services Commission).

As director of the Program on Immigration and Democracy at the Eagleton Institute of Politics, Mann worked with colleagues across the three Rutgers campuses to create “Citizenship Rutgers,” offering free citizenship application assistance to New Jersey’s almost 600,000 legal permanent residents. A Leadership New Jersey graduate , Mann has spent sabbaticals living in Venice, Barcelona, and, most recently, Buenos Aires. Her publications include contributions to The Encyclopedia of Working Class America, Flunking Out: Support for Public Higher Education Falls Short, Garden State Dreams: In-State Tuition for Undocumented Kids, and Middlesex County, New Jersey: Crossroads of the World. Currently Mann serves on the boards of the Latin American Legal Defense and Education Foundation and New Jersey Policy Perspective as well as on the Princeton Human Services Commission.

Mann and her sister, Ali, recently completed Sunset Cruise, a short documentary that highlights the connections between people in advanced old age and the (typically) immigrant workers who care for them. Most recently Mann has taught in the American Studies Program at Princeton University. Her current research project explores the role of the state, nonprofits and private enterprise in shaping the opportunities for young people growing up in low-income urban families from the first Gilded Age to today.