Lorrie Frasure, professor of political science and African American studies, is the new director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. She will hold the inaugural Ralph J. Bunche Endowed Chair.
“Since 1969, the Bunche Center (founded as the Center for Afro-American Studies) has served as a national and global leader in the study and uplift of Black life,” Dr. Frasure said. “Through longstanding and new collaborations, we will continue pioneering research as well as academic and community-based programs/initiatives, with broad impact for our communities both in the United States and internationally.”
Dr. Frasure joined the faculty at UCLA in 2007. She was the first woman of color and the first Black woman to earn tenure and promotion to full professor in the political science department at the university. Professor Frasure is the author of Racial and Ethnic Politics in American Suburbs (Cambridge University Press, 2015).
Dr. Frasure co-established the Mark Q. Sawyer Summer Institute in Race, Ethnicity and Politics, which aims to increase the number of undergraduate scholars from historically Black colleges and universities who enroll in and complete advanced degree programs in the University of California system. Also, she is one of the leads for UCLA’s recently launched Ethnic Studies Summer Specialization Program, which helps prepare middle- and high-school instructors to teach ethnic studies.
Professor Frasure holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Illinois. She earned a master of public policy degree from the University of Chicago and a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in government and politics from the University of Maryland.
