Rose Selected by University as Bass Chair

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Deondra Rose, associate professor of public policy, political science and history in the Sanford School of Public Policy and director of Polis: the Center for Politics, has been named by Duke University as a Bass Chair in recognition of excellence in undergraduate teaching and research.

Rose will be the Kevin D. Gorter Associate Professor, effective July 1 for a five-year term. She will become a lifetime member of the Bass Society of Fellows.

Rose and three additional Bass Chair recipients were honored at a university reception May 24.

Rose joined Duke in 2014 and has served in leadership roles at Polis since 2019. She has helped launch the Polis Innovation Accelerator, an initiative to help students grapple with problems such as racial injustice and threats to democracy while exploring policy innovations to address them; she created PolicyLab, which allows students to work on policy memos in response to policymakers’ questions; and she organized a major virtual conference on voting and democratic aspiration. Rose has also helped to shape Duke University efforts to support voter engagement. 

Rose’s research focuses on the feedback effects of landmark social policies on the American political landscape. In addition to U.S. public/social policy, Rose's research and teaching interests include higher education policy, American political development, political behavior, identity politics and inequality. She is the principal investigator of research projects, including Educating Black Elites: HBCUs, Public Policy, and the Redistribution of American Political Power.

Rose is the author of Citizens by Degree: Higher Education Policy and the Changing Gender Dynamics of American Citizenship (Oxford University Press, 2018), which examines the development of landmark U.S. higher education policies -- including the National Defense Education Act of 1958, the Higher Education Act of 1965, and Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments -- and their impact on the progress that women have made since the mid-20th century.

Her research has appeared in Studies in American Political Development, the Journal of Policy History, the Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, and PS: Political Science & Politics.

Rose has taught a variety of courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels. She has advised more than 30 undergraduate and graduate students on honors theses, master’s projects and doctoral dissertations. She has served as faculty advisor to a variety of student organizations, including the Sanford Journal of Public Policy.

In addition to her work as a faculty member and political scientist, Rose has worked on political campaigns in Georgia, Minnesota and North Carolina, offered political commentary frequently in the media, and served on boards and committees, including the Durham City-County Confederate Monuments committee appointed by the mayor and the City Council. She also serves as the co-director of the North Carolina Scholars Strategy Network.

The Bass program, established through a gift to Duke in 1996 from Anne T. and Richard M. Bass, honors faculty members who have achieved “true excellence in both research and teaching, and are good university citizens.” The Bass Society provides an opportunity for some of Duke's most celebrated educators to pool their experiences and resources and collaborate on innovative, interdisciplinary research and teaching initiatives.  

Previous Kevin D. Gorter professors include Kristin Goss, Judith Kelley and Robert Korstad. Other Sanford faculty who held Bass Chairs and are Bass Fellows include Nicholas Carnes, the Creed C. Black associate professor of public policy, 2018-2023, and Gunther Peck, the Fred W. Shaffer associate professor of history, 2006-2011. Anna Gassman-Pines is the WLF Bass Connections Associate Professor.