Jeff Manza is Professor of Sociology and the former chair of the Department of Sociology at New York University. He received his BA and PhD from the University of California – Berkeley. Before coming to NYU in 2006, he taught at Penn State (1996-98) and Northwestern (1998-2006). His teaching and research interests lay at the intersection of inequality, political sociology, and public policy. His research examines how different types of social identities and inequalities influence political processes such as voting, partisanship, and public opinion (at both the macro and micro level). In collaboration with Christopher Uggen, he was involved in a long-term project that has examined the causes and consequences of felon disenfranchisement in the United States; their book Locked Out: Felon Disenfranchisement and American Democracy (Oxford University Press 2006) is the standard work on the topic. Manza is the co-author of three books with Clem Brooks (of Indiana University): Social Cleavages and Political Change (Oxford University Press, 1999), a study of the changing social demography of the American electorate and its partisan consequences; an analysis of the comparative impact of public opinion on welfare state effort in the OECD democracies entitled Why Welfare States Persist (University of Chicago Press, 2007); and most recently Whose Rights? Counterterrorism and the Dark Side of American Public Opinion (Russell Sage Foundation Press, 2013), an examination of the sources and persistence of public support for harsh counterterrorism policies that highlights the role of American national identity in shaping individual attitudes. Manza and Brooks are currently completing a book on the trends and underlying mechanisms of public attitudes towards categorical versus economic inequality, entitled The Two Inequalities: Public Responses to Categorical and Economic Inequalities for Oxford University Press. His work has also appeared in numerous scholarly journals in several disciplines, including the American Sociological Review, the American Journal of Sociology, Social Forces, Sociological Theory, Public Opinion Quarterly, and the Journal of Politics, as well as newspapers and general interest magazines. Manza is an award-winning teacher and deeply committed to the importance of undergraduate teaching. While chairing the NYU Sociology Department, Manza launched The Sociology Project: An Introduction to the Sociological Imagination (Pearson 2012, now in edition 2.5 as of 2017); a unique joint venture of the Department faculty which seeks to develop a new model for the introductory textbook, with individual chapters authored by a faculty member who teaches and writes on that topic. Book is also unique in that profits will be reinvested in the graduate and undergraduate sociology programs at NYU. The second text from the project, Social Problems: The Sociology Project has recently been published. Two other core texts, on race and ethnicity, and families and intimate relationship are now in development. In addition to scholarship and teaching, Manza has served in a variety of administrative posts. Before coming to NYU, he served as the Associate Director and Acting Director of the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University, the major social science and policy research center at Northwestern.
Jeff Manza
Professor of Sociology, Chair
Ph.D. 1995, M.A. 1989, B.A. 1984, University of California, Berkeley.
Social inequality, political sociology, and public policy.
Scholarly Books:
- Clem Brooks and Jeff Manza. Whose Rights? Counterterrorism and the Dark Side of American Public Opinion, Russell Sage Foundation Press, 2013
- Clem Brooks and Jeff Manza. Why Welfare States Persist: Public Opinion and the Future of Social Provision, University of Chicago Press., 2007
- Jeff Manza and Christopher Uggen. Locked Out: Felon Disenfranchisement and American Democracy, Oxford University Press, 2006
- Social Cleavages and Political Change: Voter Alignments and U.S. Party Coalitions, Oxford University Press, 1999
Textbooks:
- Jeff Manza, et al. The Sociology Project 2.5. New York: Pearson.
- Jeff Manza, Pat Sharkey, et al. Social Problems. The Sociology Project. New York: Pearson 2018.
Scholarly Papers (Since 2000):
2018
- Jeff Manza and Ned Crowley. ‘Ethnonationalism and the Rise of Donald Trump.’ Contexts 17(1): 34-40.
- Jeff Manza and Ned Crowley. ‘Class Divisions and Political Attitudes in the 21st Century.’ In Handbook of Attitudes, ed. Dolores Albarracin and Blair Johnson, pp. 367-97. New York: Taylor and Francis.
2017
- Jeff Manza and Ned Crowley. ‘Working Class Hero? Interrogating the Social Bases of the Rise of Donald Trump.’ The Forum 15: 3-28. [Lead Article]
2016
- Jeff Manza and Clem Brooks. ‘Why Aren’t Americans More Angry About Rising Income Inequality? Pathways (Spring): 23-27.
- Clem Brooks, Jeff Manza and Emma Cohen. 2016. ‘Political Ideology and Immigrant Acceptance.’ Socius 2: 1-12.
2015
- Jeff Manza. ‘Political Inequality.’ In Robert Scott and Stephen Kosslyn, eds., Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences. New York: Wiley.
- Jeff Manza. ‘Reconnecting the Political and the Economic in the New Gilded Age.’ Contemporary Sociology 44: 449-462.
2013
- Clem Brooks and Jeff Manza. ‘A Broken Public? Americans’ Responses to the Great Recession.’ American Sociological Review 78: 727-48 [Lead Article].
- Jeff Manza.‘Putting Cultural Sociology to the Test: Reflections on Jeffrey Alexander’s The Performance of Politics.’ Sociological Forum 28: 409-14.
- Jeff Manza.The New Class War.’ Contexts 12 (Summer): 81-83.
2012
- Jeff Manza and Clem Brooks. ‘How Sociology Lost Public Opinion.’ Sociological Theory 30: 89-113 [Lead Article].
- Jeff Manza. ‘Reconnecting the Political and the Economic in the New Gilded Age.’ Contemporary Sociology 44: 449-462.
- Jeff Manza. ‘Unequal Democracy in America: The Long View.” In Inequality: Five Debates About What is to be Done.Edited by David B. Grusky and Tamar Kricheli-Katz, pp. 131-58. Stanford: Stanford University Press
- Jeff Manza. ‘Elections.’ In The Blackwell Companion to Political Sociology, ed. Kate Nash, Alan Scott, and Edwin Amenta, pp. 168-79. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
- Jeff Manza, Jennifer Heerwig, and Brian McCabe. ‘Political Trends 1972-2006: What Impact Did the Republican Resurgence Have on Mass Opinion?’ In Social Trends in the United States, 1972-2006, ed. Peter Marsden, pp. 117-45. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
- Christopher Uggen, Sarah Shannon, and Jeff Manza. State-Level Estimates of Felon Disenfranchisement in the United States2010. Washington, DC: The Sentencing Project.
- Jeff Manza.‘The Antinomies of Real Utopias.’ [Review Essay on Erik Olin Wright, Envisioning Real Utopias]. Contemporary Sociology 41: 166-70.
- ‘Review of Duncan Watts, Everything is Obvious Once You Know the Answer. European Journal of Sociology/Archives Europeennes de Sociologie 53: 418-22.
2011
- Jeff Manza and Michael McCarthy. ‘The Neo-Marxist Legacy in American Sociology.’ Annual Review of Sociology 39: 155-83.
2010
- Jeff Manza, Michael Sauder, and Nathan Wright. ‘When Ideas Meet Markets: Producing Textbook Sociology.’ European Journal of Sociology 51: 269-302.
- Leslie McCall and Jeff Manza. ‘Class Differences in Social and Political Attitudes in America.’ Oxford Handbook of American Public Opinion and the Media, ed. Lawrence Jacobs and Robert Shapiro, pp. 552-570. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Jeff Manza. ‘Liberalism’s Inevitability?’ Society 47: 477-84.
2009
- Jeff Manza. ‘Inequality and Society: An Introduction,’ in Jeff Manza and Michael Sauder (eds.), Inequality and Society (New York: Norton, 2009), pp. 1-35.
- Jeff Manza. ‘The Right to Vote and Political Inequality in America,’ in Jeff Manza and Michael Sauder (eds.), Inequality and Society (New York: Norton, 2009), pp. 846-56.
2008
- Jeff Manza and Ruth Braunstein. ‘Social Groups and Voting in Democratic Elections.’ Harvard International Review 29: 42-46.
- Jeff Manza and Clem Brooks. ‘Classes and Politics.’ In Social Class: How Does It Work?, ed. Annette Lareau and Dalton Conley, pp. 201-31 (New York: Russell Sage Foundation Press).
2006
- Clem Brooks and Jeff Manza. ‘Social Policy Responsiveness in the Developed Democracies.’ American Sociological Review 71: 474-94.
- Clem Brooks and Jeff Manza. ‘Public Opinion and Welfare Effort: Reply to Myles.’ American Sociological Review 71: 499-502.
- Clem Brooks and Jeff Manza. ‘Why Do Welfare States Persist? Social Spending Effort in OECD Democracies Since the 1980s.’ Journal of Politics 68: 815-26.
- Christopher Uggen, Jeff Manza, and Melissa Thompson. ‘Citizenship and Reintegration: The Socioeconomic, Familial, and Civic Lives of Criminal Offenders.’ The Annals of the American Academy of Social and Political Science 605: 281-310.
- Paul Nieuwbeerta, Clem Brooks, and Jeff Manza. ‘Cleavage-Based Voting in Cross-National Perspective: Evidence From Six Countries.’ Social Science Research 35: 88-128.
2005
- Christopher Uggen, Angela Behrens, and Jeff Manza. ‘Criminal Disenfranchisement.’ Annual Review of Law and Social Science 1: 307-22.
2004
- Jeff Manza and Christopher Uggen. ‘Punishment and Democracy: The Voting Rights of Nonincarcerated Criminal Offenders in the United States.’ Perspectives on Politics 2: 491-505.
- Clem Brooks and Jeff Manza. ‘A Great Divide? Religion and Political Change in U.S. National Elections, 1972 - 2000.’ The Sociological Quarterly 45: 421-50.
- Christopher Uggen and Jeff Manza. ‘Voting and Subsequent Crime and Arrest: Evidence from a Community Sample.’ Columbia Human Rights Law Review 36: 193-215.
- Jeff Manza, Clem Brooks, and Michael Sauder. ‘Money, Participation, and Votes: Social Cleavages and Electoral Politics.’ In Thomas Janoski et al. (eds.), Handbook of Political Sociology (New York: Cambridge University Press), pp. 201-226
- Christopher Uggen and Jeff Manza. ‘Disenfranchisement and the Civic Reintegration of Ex-Felons.’ In Christopher Mele and Teresa Miller (eds.), Locked Up, Then Locked Out: Collateral Civil Penalties and Consequences (New York: Routledge), pp. 65-83.
- Christopher Uggen and Jeff Manza. ‘Lost Voices: The Civic and Political Views of Disenfranchised Felons.’ In Mary Pattillo, David Weiman, and Bruce Western (eds.), Imprisoning America: The Social Impact of Mass Incarceration (New York: Russell Sage Foundation), pp. 165-204.
- Jeff Manza, Clem Brooks, and Christopher Uggen. ‘Public Attitudes Towards Felon Disenfranchisement Laws in the United States.’ Public Opinion Quarterly 68: 276-87.
- Christopher Uggen, Jeff Manza and Angela Behrens. ‘“Less Than the Average Citizen”: Stigma, Role Transition, and the Civic Reintegration of Convicted Felons.’ In Shadd Maruna and Russ Immarigeon (eds.), After Crime and Punishment: Ex-Offender Reintegration and Desistance from Crime (Devon, UK: Willan Publishing), pp. 258-90.
2003
- Clem Brooks, Jeff Manza, and Catherine Bolzendahl. ‘Voting Behavior and Political Sociology: Theories, Debates, and Future Directions.’ Research in Political Sociology 12: 137-73.
- Angela Behrens, Christopher Uggen, and Jeff Manza. ‘Ballot Manipulation and the “Menace of Negro Domination”: Racial Threat and Felon Disenfranchisement in the United States, 1850-2000.’ American Journal of Sociology 109: 559-605.
- Jeff Manza and Nathan Wright. ‘Religion and Political Behavior.’ In Michele Dillon (ed.), Handbook of the Sociology of Religion (New York: Cambridge University Press), pp. 297-314.
- Christopher Uggen, Jeff Manza, and Angela Behrens. ‘Felony Voting Rights and the Disenfranchisement of African Americans.’ Souls 5(3): 48-57.
2002
- Christopher Uggen and Jeff Manza. ‘Democratic Contraction? The Political Consequences of Felon Disenfranchisement in the United States.’ American Sociological Review 67: 777-803 [Lead Article].
- Jeff Manza and Fay Lomax Cook. ‘A Democratic Polity? Three Views of Policy Responsiveness to Public Opinion in the United States.’ American Political Research 30: 630-67 [Lead Article].
- Jeff Manza and Clem Brooks. ‘The Changing Political Fortunes of Mainline Protestants.’ In Robert Wuthnow and John Evans (eds.), The Quiet Hand of God: The Public Role of Mainline Protestantism (Berkeley: University of California Press), pp. 159-80.
2000
- Jeff Manza. ‘Political Sociological Models of the U.S. New Deal.’Annual Review of Sociology 26: 297-322
- Jeff Manza. ‘Race and the Underdevelopment of the American Welfare State.’ Theory and Society 30: 819-32.
- Jeff Manza and Debbie Van Schyndel. ‘Still the Missing Feminist Revolution? Inequalities of Race, Class, and Gender in Introductory Texts.’ [Comment on Ferree and Hall, ASR Dec 1996]. American Sociological Review 64: 468-75.
Contact Information
Jeff Manza
Professor of Sociology, Chair manza@nyu.edu Department of Sociology,295 Lafayette Street
New York, NY 10012
Phone: (212) 998-8366