Anne Griffin

Professor Emerita of Political Science and Public Policy

Anne Griffin teaches both the core curriculum and advanced electives in political science. Her current work deals with the interfaces of public policy and collective memory and specifically with the memory of resistance in Belgium during World War II. She is the author of a documentary installation, Resistance and Memory in Belgium, 1940-1945: Multiple Narratives, which has been exhibited at several venues, including the Dutch Resistance Museum in Amsterdam in 2008, and most recently at the Queens College Art Center.  Dr. Griffin is also completing a book on the same subject. 

Earlier work includes: Quebec: The Challenge of Independence, which examines the roots of the Independence movement in Quebec during the 1960s and '70s, and Forging a Women's Health Research Agenda: Policy Issues for the 1990s.

She has also had experience in New York City politics, having served for five years on Community Planning Board Eight, and as Chair of its committee on revision of the City Charter for two.

Dr. Griffin's work has been supported by the Fulbright Foundation, of which she has served on the National Screening Committee for Belgium, Luxembourg and The Netherlands; the Righteous Persons Foundation; the New York Council for the Humanities; and by several grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 2011 she was awarded the rank of Officer, Order of the Crown (Belgium). She holds an A.B. from Wellesley College and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from New York University, where she taught before coming to Cooper Union.

Recent Books:
Quebec: The Challenge of Independence
Women and Mental Health
Forging a Women's Health Research Agenda: Issues for the 1990s

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  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.