Denise E. Bates
Denise E. Bates, Professor of History, joined Tufts as the Dean of University College in 2023. She leads a dedicated team of professionals to advance our mission of expanding access and catalyzing resources university-wide to produce high-quality programming for the workforce of the future and learners at every stage of life. She was previously at Arizona State University (ASU), where she was the Associate Dean of Student Success and Community Engagement for the College of Integrative Sciences and Arts. She was also a Thought Leader Fellow with the American Indian Policy Institute and a Senior Global Futures Scholar with the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory.
She is an award-winning scholar and teacher whose work has been supported by the Ford Foundation, Princeton University Library and Archives, and the Arthur and Rochelle Belfer Foundation. At ASU, she received the Outstanding Research, Senior Distinguished Scholar Award, and the Outstanding Faculty-Directed Program: Fostering Global Citizenship Award for her Indigenous Peoples of Belize: History, Leadership, and Sustainable Well-Being program. Her scholarship examines leadership, activism, community development, and education among Indigenous peoples of the 19th and 20th-century U.S. South, with some of her publications including books entitled The Other Movement: Indian Rights and Civil Rights in the Deep South and Basket Diplomacy: Leadership, Alliance-Building, and Resilience among the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, 1884-1984. She also has a long track record of building programs and designing curricula utilizing new instructional technologies to increase access to a diverse range of learners.