Melanie Penny

Inequality & Social Policy IGERT
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA



Melanie Rose Penny hails from Compton, CA, and has arrived at Harvard after spending five years on the Stanford University farm. She received her bachelor's degree in Political Science in 2002, and spent most of 2003 working as a research assistant in Stanford's Departments of Communication and Psychology, studying a wide range of race-related issues. Her senior thesis dealt with the effect of the news media on the creation of criminal justice policy and the resultant disproportionate confinement of African-American youth. Melanie's many research interests revolve around the issue of perception and the way in which popular perceptions can significantly influence the content of social acts. Currently, she is studying how perceptions of one's neighborhood may affect the quality of life experienced within various neighborhood contexts. Although she is most frequently consumed by the weight of pressing social issues, in her lighter moments, Ms. Penny enjoys partaking of the comedic stylings and social commentary of Martin Lawrence and Eddie Murphy (the early years).

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