Margaret Groarke

My research agenda revolves around voter registration procedures and voter suppression activities. In 2016 I published an article about the use of fraud claims to block voter registration reform. and I am currently doing research on the way states maintain their voter lists, and the use of list purging to disenfranchise voters.

I also research and teach about the political action of ordinary people, primarily through grassroots social movements and community organizations.   

As a former long-time director of the Peace and Justice Studies program, I have also done some work on pedagogy in the field. 

• Margaret Groarke and Emily Welty. Peace and Justice Studies: Critical Pedagogy. New York: Routledge, 2019.
• Frances Fox Piven, Lorraine Minnite and Margaret Groarke. Keeping Down the Black Vote: Race and the Demobilization of the American Voter. New York: New Press, 2009. 

Articles/Chapters:

• "Learning Justice in the Streets: Community Organizing and Peace and Justice Studies," in Groarke and Welty, Peace and Justice Studies.

• “The Impact of Voter Fraud Claims on Voter Registration Reform Legislation,” Political Science Quarterly 131:3 (Fall 2016), 571-596.

• “Rating the 44th President on Immigration” in Grading the 44th President: A Report Card on Barack Obama's First Term as a Progressive Leader, forthcoming. 

• “Organizing Against Targets Beyond the Neighborhood,” New Political Science, June 2004. 
• “Organizing Against Overfinancing: The Northwest Bronx Coalition campaign against Freddie Mac” Bronx County Historical Society Journal (Fall 2002). 
• “Keepin’ it Real: Community Organizing in the Bronx”, with Jordan Moss, in Ben Shepard and Ron Hayduk, eds. From ACT UP to the WTO: Urban Protest and Community Building in the Era of Globalization. New York: Verso Books, 2002. 
• "Power, Agency and Structure:  An Examination of Steven Lukes." New Political Science.  Winter 1994. 

Reviews/Encyclopedia Articles:

• “Treme [popular culture review]” New Political Science, Volume 33, Issue 2, 2011
• “A Taste of Power: A review of Going Public by Michael Gecan” City Limits, January 2003. 
• “[Book Review] Social Movements and American Political Institutions”, Mobilization Spring 2001. 
• “America First Party” and “Constitution Party”, in The Encyclopedia of Third Parties in America, Immanuel Ness and James Ciment, eds. New York:  M.E. Sharpe, 2000.
• “Race to the Bottom: A review of The Campaign: Rudy Giuliani, Ruth Messinger, Al Sharpton and the Race to be Mayor of New York City, by Evan J. Mandery,” City Limits, May 2000. 

Recent Conference Papers:

• "Deadwood and Disenfranchisement: Maintaining Voter Lists in the United States,” at Southern Political Science Association, New Orleans, January 2017.

• “The particular benefits of community organizing in service-learning” at Peace and Justice Studies Association (PJSA), October 2013.

• “That Ain’t Right: Fighting back against the foreclosure crisis” at PJSA, Memphis TN, October 2011.

• “Purging Voters under the NVRA” co-authored by Lorraine C. Minnite, presented at Midwest Political Science Association, April 2009.

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Dr. Groarke taught at the City University of New York before coming to Manhattan College, primarily at Lehman College. She worked as a community organizer, at the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, in the 1980s, and has remained very involved in the organization ever since. She currently represents Manhattan College on the NWBCCC board.

Professional Memberships

• I was an active board member from 2009 until 2017 of Project Vote.  Project Vote was a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization founded on the belief that an organized, diverse electorate is the key to a better America. Project Vote’s mission was to build an electorate that accurately represents the diversity of this nation’s citizenry, and to ensure that every eligible citizen can register, vote, and cast a ballot that counts.
• Peace and Justice Studies Association (former Co-chair of the Board)
• American Political Science Association

As Coordinator of Community Engaged Learning, Dr. Groarke assists faculty who want to work with community partners for the mutual benefit of our students' education and the good of the community. For more about this work, see here 

I am actively involved, as I encourage my students to be, of the college, the local community, and the national community.