Paula D. McClain is a professor of political science; and professor of public policy and African American Studies at Duke University. She is Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Gender in the Social Sciences at Duke University.

She directs the American Political Science Association's Ralph Bunche Summer Institute hosted by Duke University, and funded by the National Science Foundation and Duke University. A Howard University Ph.D., her primary research interests are in racial minority group politics, particularly inter-minority political and social competition, and urban politics, especially public policy and urban crime. Her articles have appeared in numerous journals, most recently the Journal of Politics, American Political Science Review, Urban Affairs Review, and The Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race. 

Publications include:

• American Government in Black and White. Co-authored with Steven C. Tauber. (Boulder: Paradigm Publishers forthcoming February 2010).
• “Can We All Get Along?” Racial and Ethnic Minorities in American Politics, 5th edition. Co-authored with Joseph Stewart, Jr. (Boulder: Westview Press, 2009).