Joan Maya Mazelis

Dr. Mazelis is an Associate Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice, the Director of the Gender Studies Program at Rutgers University-Camden, a Faculty Affiliate at the University of Wisconsin’s Institute for Research on Poverty, a member of the Council on Contemporary Families and of the Scholars Strategy Network. Dr. Mazelis received her B.A. from Binghamton University of the State University of New York and her M.A. and her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Mazelis is passionate about using research to advance public understandings of important issues and amplifying the voices of those in poverty. In addition to her peer-reviewed scholarship, she is an award-winning public sociologist; she is a member of the inaugural class of 2022 Public Sociology Award recipients from the Eastern Sociological Society and the winner of the 2022 Michael Harrington Award from The Poverty, Class, & Inequality Division of the Society for the Study of Social Problems. She has authored blog posts and brief reports for The Society Pages, the Council on Contemporary Families, and the Scholars Strategy Network. She has been a frequent source for journalists writing about poverty and related issues, and has been quoted as an expert by outlets such as The 19th, WalletHub, Today.com, NBC10 Philadelphia, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and Politifact. Dr. Mazelis has been a guest on NPR’s The 1a, and her op-eds have appeared in The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Hill, and The Washington Post.