Anastasia Perez is a graduating Master's student in the Political Science – United Nations and Global Policy Studies (UNMA) program at Rutgers University, with a concentration in cybersecurity, conflict resolution, and counterterrorism. Before starting the UNMA program, Anastasia received her Bachelor's degree in History from Loyola University New Orleans and moved to South Korea to teach English at a private elementary school.
Her research examines AI policy and digital technology at their intersection with democracy, with past work exploring the role of social media algorithms in elections, the Manosphere's influence on populist rhetoric, and the fragmented AI policy landscape in the United States. This past April, she presented her paper, "Fragmented Governance in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: Mapping State, Local, and Federal Approaches to Government AI Policy in the U.S.," at the annual Midwestern Political Science Association Conference in Chicago. She plans to publish this research later this year.
During her time at Rutgers, Anastasia has worked as a Qualitative Graduate Specialist for Rutgers Libraries and as a Graduate Assistant for the Tyler Clementi Center. Anastasia is fluent in Spanish, has professional fluency in French, and is currently building her fluency in Korean. Anastasia is currently working as a Data Annotator for emerging AI and LLM models, and she hopes to further contribute her research and writing to understanding the societal and political impacts of digital technology and AI. Anastasia is also currently considering pursuing a PhD.