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Kristin A. Goss, Susan B. King Distinguished Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Center for the Study of Philanthropy and Voluntarism and Director of Duke in DC, Policy, Leadership & Innovation and Faculty Affiliate in the Center for Strategic Philanthropy and Civil Society and Faculty Affiliate in the Hart Leadership  

Office Location: 234 Sanford School Bldg, Durham, NC 27708
Duke Box: 90245
Email Address: kgoss@duke.edu
Web Page: https://duke.box.com/s/uqec6lnbpwi3lfketrqv2k0ghd8accis
Web Page: http://kristingoss.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KAGoss

Areas of Expertise

  • American Government and Politics, Political Participation
  • Philanthropy and Nonprofits
  • Social Policy
    • Gender
    • Violence

Education:
Ph.D., Harvard University, 2003
A.M., Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., 1999
M.P.P., Duke University, 1996
Master of Public Policy, with faculty award, Duke University, Durham, NC, 1996
B.A., Harvard University, 1987
Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, Harvard College, Cambridge, Mass., 1987

Current projects: (1) shifting politics of gun reform; (2) mega-philanthropy and public agenda-setting and policy; (3) organizing women as women - challenges and priorities.

Research Description: Civic and political participation; role of voluntary associations and foundations in public policy; women and politics; politics of animal welfare; politics of gun control; agenda setting; public opinion

Office Hours:
Fall 2023: Tuesday, 2-4 pm, Sanford 234

Representative Publications   (More Publications)

  1. Carlson, J; Goss, KA; Shapira, H. Gun Studies Interdisciplinary Approaches to Politics, Policy, and Practice. Routledge, November, 2018. 348 pages pp.  [abs]
  2. Cook, PJ; Goss, KA. The Gun Debate: What Everyone Needs to Know. Oxford University Press, 2014. 280 pages pp. [available here]  [abs]
  3. Goss, KA. "The paradox of gender equality: How American women's groups gained and lost their public voice." The Paradox of Gender Equality: How American Women's Groups Gained and Lost Their Public Voice (December, 2012): 1-240. [available here]  [abs]
  4. Goss, KA. Disarmed: The Missing Movement for Gun Control in America.  2006, 2009. [available here]  [abs]
  5. Goss, KA; Barnes, C; Rose, D. "Bringing Organizations Back In: Multilevel Feedback Effects on Individual Civic Inclusion." Policy Studies Journal 47.2 (May, 2019): 451-470. [doi]  [abs]
  6. Goss, KA. "Book Review: Nonprofits and government: Collaboration and conflict by E. T. Boris and C. E. Steuerle (Eds.)." Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 48.1 (February, 2019): 227-228. [doi]
  7. Goss, KA; Berry, JM. "Foundations as interest groups." Interest Groups and Advocacy 7.3 (October, 2018): 201-205. [doi]  [abs]
  8. Berry, JM; Goss, KA. "Donors for democracy? Philanthropy and the challenges facing America in the twenty-first century." Interest Groups and Advocacy 7.3 (October, 2018): 233-257. [doi]  [abs]
  9. Goss, KA. "Whatever Happened to the 'Missing Movement'? Gun Politics Over Two Decades of Change." Gun Studies: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Politics, Policy, and Practice. Ed. J Carlson, KA Goss, H Shapira Routledge, 2018: 136-150.
  10. Goss, KA. "US women's groups in national policy debates, 1880-2000." 100 Years of the Nineteenth Amendment: An Appraisal of Women's Political Activism. Oxford University Press, February, 2018: 198-226. [doi]  [abs]
  11. Goss, KA. "The Swells Between the Waves." The Oxford Handbook of Women's Activism. Ed. H McCammon, et al. Oxford University Press, 2017: 51-70.
  12. Farley, KEW; Goss, KA; Smith, SR. "Introduction to Advancing Philanthropic Scholarship: The Implications of Transformation." PS - Political Science and Politics 51.1 (January, 2018): 39-42. [doi]
  13. Siegel, M; Xuan, Z; Ross, CS; Galea, S; Kalesan, B; Fleegler, E; Goss, KA. "Easiness of Legal Access to Concealed Firearm Permits and Homicide Rates in the United States.." American journal of public health 107.12 (December, 2017): 1923-1929. [doi]  [abs]
  14. Goss, KA. Good Policy, Not Stories, Can Reduce Violence.  Chronicle Review (Chronicle of Higher Education) (May, 2007).
  15. Smith, VM; Siegel, M; Xuan, Z; Ross, CS; Galea, S; Kalesan, B; Fleegler, E; Goss, KA. "Broadening the Perspective on Gun Violence: An Examination of the Firearms Industry, 1990-2015.." American journal of preventive medicine 53.5 (November, 2017): 584-591. [doi]  [abs]
  16. Díez, C; Kurland, RP; Rothman, EF; Bair-Merritt, M; Fleegler, E; Xuan, Z; Galea, S; Ross, CS; Kalesan, B; Goss, KA; Siegel, M. "State Intimate Partner Violence-Related Firearm Laws and Intimate Partner Homicide Rates in the United States, 1991 to 2015.." Annals of internal medicine 167.8 (October, 2017): 536-543. [doi]  [abs]
  17. Siegel, M; Pahn, M; Xuan, Z; Ross, CS; Galea, S; Kalesan, B; Fleegler, E; Goss, KA. "Firearm-Related Laws in All 50 US States, 1991-2016.." American journal of public health 107.7 (July, 2017): 1122-1129. [doi]  [abs]
  18. Goss, KA. "The Socialization of Conflict and Its Limits: Gender and Gun Politics in America*." Social Science Quarterly 98.2 (June, 2017): 455-470. [doi]  [abs]
  19. Carlson, J; Goss, KA. "Gendering the second amendment." Law and Contemporary Problems 80.2 (January, 2017): 103-128.
  20. Goss, KA. "Policy Plutocrats: How America’s Wealthy Seek to Influence Governance." PS: Political Science & Politics 49.3 (2016): 442-448. [68956907EC2F6280D25236ADE2063D8E]
  21. Goss, KA. "Defying the odds on gun regulation: The passage of bipartisan mental health laws across the states.." The American journal of orthopsychiatry 85.3 (May, 2015): 203-210. [doi]
  22. Goss, KA. "Gender Identity and the Shifting Basis of Advocacy by US Women's Groups, 1920-2000." Nonprofits and Advocacy. Ed. Pekkanen, RJ; Smith, SR; Tsujinaka, Y JHU Press, June, 2014: 320 pages.
  23. Goss, KA. "Does the United States Still Need a Women's Movement? Introduction." Politics & Gender 10.2 (June, 2014): 265-270. [Gateway.cgi], [doi]
  24. Goss, KA. "The U.S. Women’s Jury Movement and Strategic Adaptation. By Holly J. McCammon. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012. 298p. $99.00.." Perspectives on Politics 12.1 (March, 2014): 188-190. [doi]
  25. Goss, KA. "Response to holly mccammon's review of the paradox of gender equality: How American women's groups gained and lost their public voice." Perspectives on Politics 12.1 (January, 2014): 187-188. [doi]
  26. Goss, KA. "Review of Gendered Money: Financial Organization in Women's Movements, 1880-1933,." Journal of Women, Politics & Policy 34.3 (2013): 290-91.
  27. Goss, KA. "Civil society and civic engagement: Towards a multi-level theory of policy feedbacks." Journal of Civil Society 6.2 (September, 2010): 119-143. [doi]  [abs]
  28. Goss, KA; Gastwirth, DA; Parkash, SG. "Research service-learning: Making the academy relevant again." Journal of Political Science Education 6.2 (April, 2010): 117-141. [repository], [doi]  [abs] [author's comments]
  29. Goss, KA; Heaney, MT. "Organizing Women as Women: Hybridity and Grassroots Collective Action in the 21st Century,." Perspectives on Politics 8.1 (March, 2010): 27-27. [repository], [doi]  [abs]
  30. Goss, KA. "Never Surrender? How Women's Groups Abandoned Their Policy Niche in U.S. Foreign Policy Debates, 1916–2000." Politics and Gender 5.4 (January, 2009): 453-489. [Gateway.cgi], [doi]  [abs]
  31. Goss, KA; Shames, SL. "Political Pathways to Child Care Policy: The Role of Gender in Statebuilding." Women and Politics around the World: Comparative History and Survey. ABC-CLIO, 2009
  32. Goss, KA. "Foundations of feminism: How philanthropic patrons shaped gender politics." Social Science Quarterly 88.5 (December, 2007): 1174-1191. [doi]  [abs]
  33. Goss, KA. "Review: Why Women Don’t Run for Office." Georgetown Public Policy Review 11.2 (Spring, 2006): 27-33.
  34. Goss, KA; Skocpol, T. "Changing Agendas: The Impact of Feminism on American Politics." Gender and Social Capital. Ed. Neill, BO; Gidengil, E New York: Routledge, 2006: 323-356. [doi]
  35. Goss, KA. "Policy, politics, and paradox: The institutional origins of the great American gun war." Fordham Law Review 73.2 (November, 2004): 681-714.
  36. Goss, KA. "Rethinking the Political Participation Paradigm: The Case of Women and Gun Control." Women and Politics 25.4 (December, 2003): 83-118. [doi]  [abs]
  37. Goss, KA. "Review: Gun Violence in America: The Struggle for Control." Political Science Quarterly 117.3 (Fall, 2002): 532-533.
  38. Goss, KA. "Volunteering and the long civic generation." Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 28.4 (January, 1999): 378-415. [doi]  [abs]

Curriculum Vitae

Highlight:
Professor Goss focuses on why people do (or don't) participate in political life and how their engagement affects public policymaking. Her current research projects focus on the role of philanthropic billionaires in policy debates and on the evolution of gun-related advocacy over the past decade. Her recent articles and books are here. If you want a quick summary, here are some podcasts, op-eds, and other media offerings. 

Professor Goss directs the "Duke in DC" program, which provides select undergraduates with an immersive experience combining work experience and policy-oriented seminars. In 2017, she was inducted into the Bass Society of Fellows. See more about Professor Goss at kristingoss.com.

Professor Goss has written or co-produced three books on gun politics and policy: The Gun Debate: What Everyone Needs to Know, with Philip J. Cook (Oxford University Press, 2020; 1st ed 2014); Gun Studies: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Politics, Policy, and Practice, co-edited with Jennifer Carlson and Harel Shapira (Routledge, 2018); and Disarmed: The Missing Movement for Gun Control in America (Princeton University Press, 2006, 2009). The latter book is based on her doctoral study, which won the American Political Science Association’s 2003 Harold D. Lasswell Award for the nation’s best dissertation in policy studies.

Professor Goss has also written widely on gender and politics. She is the author of The Paradox of Gender Equality: How American Women's Groups Gained and Lost Their Public Voice (University of Michigan Press, 2020 1st ed., 2013). The book documents and explains the surprising rise -- and even more surprising fall -- of American women's groups on the national stage. Systematically examining these groups' issue agendas over the last century, the book argues that public policy has profoundly shaped the nature and magnitude of women's collective voice in important national debates.

Professor Goss has published articles in journals including Perspectives on Politics, Policy Studies Journal, PS: Political Science and Politics, Interest Groups & Advocacy, Law & Contemporary Problems, Social Science Quarterly, American Journal of Public Health, American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, Politics & Gender, Women & Politics, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, and the Fordham Law Review. She has also published chapters in major volumes on women's activism and interest groups. She is author of Better Together, the report of the Saguaro Seminar: Civic Engagement in America.

Professor Goss also is active in the Triangle Area chapter of the Scholars Strategy Network, which amplifies the voice of university-based academics in public policy debates.

At Duke, she is affiliated with the Center for Strategic Philanthropy and Civil Society, the Center for the Study of Philanthropy and Voluntarism, the Hart Leadership Program, and the Duke Center for Firearms Law.

Before her appointment at Duke, Professor Goss taught American politics courses at Georgetown University and served as a consultant for the Corporation for National and Community Service. Her Duke master’s thesis explored the challenges facing voluntary associations seeking to stop the epidemic of gun violence in Washington, D.C., in the 1990s.

Professor Goss grew up near Denver, where she developed a passion for figure skating and animal welfare. Before entering academe, she was a Washington-based journalist for six years covering non-profit organizations and foundations for The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Bio/Profile
Professor Goss focuses on why people do (or don't) participate in political life and how their engagement affects public policymaking. Her current research focuses on the role of philanthropic billionaires in policy debates and on the evolution of gun-related advocacy over the past decade.

Professor Goss directs the "Duke in DC" program, which provides select undergraduates with an immersive experience combining work experience and policy-oriented seminars.

Professor Goss is co-author (with Philip Cook) of The Gun Debate: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, 2nd ed. forthcoming), co-editor (with Jennifer Carlson and Harel Shapira) of Gun Studies (Routledge 2019), and author of Disarmed: The Missing Movement for Gun Control in America (Princeton University Press, 2006, 2009). Disarmed is based on Professor Goss' doctoral study, which won the American Political Science Association’s 2003 Harold D. Lasswell Award for the nation’s best dissertation in policy studies.

Professor Goss also is the author of The Paradox of Gender Equality: How American Women's Groups Gained and Lost Their Public Voice (University of Michigan Press, 2013). The book documents and explains the surprising rise -- and even more surprising fall -- of American women's groups on the national stage. Systematically examining these groups' issue agendas over the last century, the book argues that public policy has profoundly shaped the nature and magnitude of women's collective voice in important national debates.

Professor Goss has published articles in Policy Studies Journal, Perspectives on Politics, PS: Political Science and Politics, Social Science Quarterly, Politics & Gender, Women & Politics, Law & Contemporary Problems, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, and the Fordham Law Review, as well as several book chapters. She is author of Better Together, the report of the Saguaro Seminar: Civic Engagement in America.

Before her appointment at Duke, Professor Goss taught American politics courses at Georgetown University and served as a consultant for the Corporation for National and Community Service. Her Duke master’s thesis explored the challenges facing voluntary associations seeking to stop the epidemic of gun violence in Washington, D.C., in the 1990s.

Professor Goss grew up near Denver, where she developed a passion for figure skating and animal welfare. Before entering academe, she was a Washington-based journalist for six years covering non-profit organizations and foundations for The Chronicle of Philanthropy. Professor Goss splits her time between Durham and Arlington, VA. She serves as president of the League of Women Voters of Arlington.

Current Ph.D. Students   (Former Students)

Kristin A. Goss