Rose Melikan was born in Detroit, Michigan and grew up in nearby Dearborn. She obtained degrees in literature, law and history at the University of Michigan and the University of Chicago before moving to Cambridge, England in 1989 to complete her Ph.D. at Gonville & Caius College.

Since 1993, Rose has been a Fellow of St Catharine's College, Cambridge, and she lectures on British Constitutional History in the University's Law Faculty. You can read more about her academic work on her faculty page.

Rose lives in Cambridge with her husband, Quentin.