What does it mean to be a model citizen?
Calling all current Duke undergraduate, graduate, and professional students with an interest in politics, democracy, and public service!
Polis: Center for Politics is committed to increasing our understanding of politics locally, nationally, and globally.
We aim to promote powerful politics research, to foster rich political discourse, and to help a new generation of leaders find on-ramps to public service.
Projects & Programs
The Civil Discourse Project (CDP) sponsors courses, events, and scholarship that promote civil discourse through modeling or teaching the capacities and virtues necessary to engage in healthy exchange across difference. At CDP, we aim to create, both inside and outside the classroom, intellectually diverse communities of friends who will both support and challenge each other in a collective pursuit of truth and knowledge—enabling all to become better thinkers, people, community members, citizens, and leaders. We maintain that such community requires freedom of thought, inquiry, and expression for faculty and students alike.
The Polis Distinguished Fellows Program honors extraordinary leadership in politics and public service. Fellows are prominent figures who bring expertise and experience from their roles as practitioners in politics and governance, campaigns, activism, journalism, media, etc.
The AY24-25 Polis Distinguished Fellow is Richard Burr, Principal Policy Advisor, DLA Piper LLP & Former North Carolina State Senator
The Polis Student Committee (PSC) is a community of undergraduate, graduate, and professional students at Duke University who share an interest in politics, democracy, and public service. The PSC aims to promote greater understanding of—and engagement with—politics at the local, state, national, and global levels. PSC members are official members of the Polis community who participate in the center’s events and activities, gain access to special perks and unique opportunities, and play a valuable role in helping to shape Polis’s programs.
Polis: Center for Politics serves as the Campus Partner for Project Citizen, an Experiential Orientation program designed to give students the skills to be informed, active, and compassionate citizens within Duke campus and our local, national, and global communities.
John Hillen: American Civics and Student Leadership
“I think there’s two keys to civic education, and I like to think of it very broadly. The first key most people get because it can be captured in scoring and measured. And that is the extent of knowledge about our civics and our history, which is largely sometimes just a test of facts. And what you most often see is could native born Americans pass the naturalization immigration test that new immigrants have to pass to get citizenship? So, this can be measured and that’s fine. And I do think it’s important for Americans to have a common set of facts about their history…”
‘A Battlefield of Ideas’: Students Promote Civil Discourse Through Peer-Driven Magazine, Events
“You disagree with your friend’s political views. You could:
a) Cancel the friend on social media
b) End the friendship in real life
c) Start a magazine where classmates with opposing views share their essays to better understand each other
Duke juniors Zachary Partnoy (liberal) and Sherman Criner (conservative) chose option “c.””
Political scientists at Duke University draw upon a variety of theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches to produce cutting-edge research that enhances our understanding of politics. Polis is committed to showcasing political science research at Duke and to facilitating its creation.
Check out valuable student insights from Professor Deondra Rose's Political Analysis for Public Policymaking (PUBPOL301) on Medium.
The Lemur provides a forum for intellectually ambitious and curious Duke students who wish to share ideas about history, philosophy, politics, art, religion, science, and culture with the broader university community while honing their writing skills with the aid of superb mentorship from Duke faculty and affiliates.
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Research
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Promoting student voter participation
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