 She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Government at Harvard University in 1975.Abigail Mann was born on September 14, 1936, in New York City.Raised on a collective farm in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, by radical secular Jewish parents, she was originally active in progressive politics and became politically conservative in middle age, supporting a color-blind philosophy and taking steps to provide equal opportunity through improving education while becoming increasingly critical of affirmative action, gerrymandering, and identity politics.