About New America
We are dedicated to renewing America by continuing the quest to realize our nation's highest ideals, honestly confronting the challenges caused by rapid technological and social change, and seizing the opportunities those changes create.
Our History:
New America was founded in 1999 to nurture a new generation of public intellectuals – scholars, policy experts, and journalists who could address major social, economic, and political challenges in ways that would engage the public at large – and to provide a set of blueprints for American renewal in an era of globalization and digitization. The initial challenge, which continues today, was to find the minds and foster the debates needed to guide American renewal in an era of profound, exhilarating, but often threatening change.
Under the leadership of Founding President Ted Halstead and his successor Steve Coll, New America became a vibrant intellectual community and public policy institute. Its Fellows and program staff have incubated and advanced breakthrough ideas in a wide range of domestic and international policy arenas.
Today we are a community of innovative problem-solvers, combining our core expertise in researching, reporting and analysis with new areas of coding, data science, and human-centered design to experiment and innovate nationally and globally. We prize our intellectual and ideological independence and our diversity, seeking to do our best work and to reflect the America we are becoming.
Our Work:
New America is pioneering a new kind of think and action tank: a civic platform that connects a research institute, technology lab, solutions network, media hub and public forum.
- We generate big, bold ideas as templates for change.
- We design and advance evidence-based public policies.
- We surface, share, and scale locally generated and tested solutions to public problems through a national and global network of public, private, and civic partners.
- We develop legal, political and technological tools to build democratic capacity and enable solutions to grow and spread.
- We tell stories about what is happening and what is possible, to give Americans a window into what we are capable of achieving together and a vision of what a renewed America could and should be.
Our Vision:
As our institutions and ways of life are buffeted by change, we work for:
- A society that promotes economic opportunity for all.
- Equal representation in politics and participation in accountable governance.
- A secure, prosperous America that lives up to its values and commitments at home and abroad.
- Thriving families, individuals and communities with the time, stability and opportunity to lead self-directed lives.
- Equitable, accessible, high-quality education and training over a lifetime.
- Universal access to digital technology and its benefits across all communities.
New America GradFUTURES Fellowship (Future of Property Rights)
REPORTS TO: Director of Property Rights (Yuliya Panfil)
More than 5 million Americans are forcibly displaced from their homes each year because of eviction, mortgage foreclosure, eminent domain, and other factors, and this number will likely increase due to COVID-19 and its associated economic downturn. This displacement can splinter communities and limit access to jobs, education, transportation, and childcare. It can cause physical and mental trauma, particularly for children. And yet, we know very little about the mechanisms of loss, who is most at risk, where, and what happens to individuals and families after they are displaced. What is more: climate change and natural disasters are displacing more than a million Americans a year, adding new complexity to our country's housing crisis.
The Future of Property Rights Program at New America seeks to analyze and visualize the problem of U.S. housing instability and property loss, to tell the stories of the people who experience it, and to surface policy solutions. The extern will assist the FPR team with quantitative and qualitative research, writing (e.g., articles for the press, as well as policy papers), analysis of laws and policies, event support, and general administrative duties. The ideal candidate is a self-starter, with excellent writing and research skills, has the ability to work quickly and multi-task, has experience in either law, policy, housing or climate or environmental sciences, and possesses some prior understanding of or interest in land and property rights issues.
The GradFUTURES Fellowship program offers highly curated experiential opportunities for graduate students at organizations who have partnered with the Graduate School. The fellowship opportunity below is currently accepting applications. All GradFUTURES Fellowships will be conducted in accordance with Princeton, local, state, and federal COVID-19 guidelines.
To be considered, applicants must be currently enrolled Princeton graduate students in good academic standing and meet all application criteria on the application form found below.
Hear from Current and Former Fellows & Mentors!
"As ASA is largely reimagining and rebuilding its programs, we felt this was the perfect time to bring on a different, unique perspective to help shape our work. Having Pallavi Podapati's knowledge and experience in disability is adding so much value to our work on the intersections of ageism and ableism."
"My career trajectory is far from predictable, from art history and Latin American studies to internet policy and the Middle East. But art history taught me how to look closely at things and describe what I see, rather than what I expect to see. Latin American studies, including a semester abroad in Mexico and a lot of other travel, taught me how interconnected we all are. In my career and in my life, I aim to synthesize the best of the analog world I was born into with the digital world that has since emerged and do my small part to make it a better, more inviting place for all..."
I graduated in May 2020 with my B.S. in biomedical engineering from Washington University in St. Louis. I spent the summer after my graduation interning with the cell therapy team at MilliporeSigma before starting graduate school here at Princeton.
"As an incoming first year student with limited prior industry experience, this…
"One of my projects as a Responsible AI Institute GradFUTURES Fellow involved assisting the Department of Defense with a project to integrate responsible AI practices into its procurement process. This opportunity gave me the chance to direct my graduate studies towards helping an institution with a relatively under-the-radar but pressing issue."
After completing a BS at Rochester College and MTS and ThM at Emory University, Rebekah Haigh became a Fulbright Fellow at Hebrew University in 2017-2018. In 2018, she joined the PhD program in Religions of Mediterranean Antiquity at Princeton. While her dissertation centers on ritual and violence in ancient Judaism, she also explores the role…
Debbie Hart worked alongside NJ’s biotechnology industry leaders to establish BioNJ in 1994 and has been dedicated to building NJ’s life sciences ecosystem ever since. Debbie was named by Governor Murphy to the New Jersey Commission on Science, Innovation and Technology where she serves as Vice Chair; as co-chair of the New Jersey Higher…
I'm a fourth year graduate student working on Brexit and populism in the United Kingdom, where I am currently based. Whilst conducting fieldwork, I love growing my network and learning from other Princeton alums here in Europe who have gone in exciting directions.
I recently completed a University Administrative Fellowship with the…
Florence Hudson is Executive Director of the Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub at Columbia University, and Founder & CEO of FDHint, LLC, a global advanced technology and diversity & inclusion consulting firm. She is the project leader for the COVID Information Commons (https://covidinfocommons.net) funded by NSF, providing an open…
A scholar of Roman art and Ph.D. candidate at Princeton University, Margaret Kurkoski is primarily focused on the relationship between architecture and décor at ancient villas. Drawing from textual and archaeological sources, her work investigates how individual decisions concerning properties, whether enacted by patrons, architects, or…
