Departments in Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

African & African American Studies

Researchers in the African & African American Studies department encompass anthropologists, economists, performance artists, literary critics, political scientists, philosophers, sociologists, historians, and art historians. Scholarly teams explore music, cultural studies, film, performance, popular culture, gender, sexuality, race, public policy and law to reveal the experiences and perspectives of those of African descent and to theorize and historicize racism, sexism, classism, homophobia and other markers of difference. Some scholars concentrate on Africa and the African diaspora in the Atlantic World examining the dynamics of race and African culture outside of the U.S. At the undergraduate level, we offer a major and a minor, with either an Americas or an African focus. At the graduate level, we offer a Certificate in African and African American Studies that is open to Duke graduate students admitted in either master's or doctoral programs.

See also the North Carolina Central University-Duke Program in African, African American & Diaspora Studies, which fosters collaboration between NCCU and Duke students, sponsors jointly taught courses, a lecture series and more.

Air Force ROTC The Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) is a commissioning program for the U.S. Air Force that emphasizes aerospace defense studies, leadership and management, communications skills and professional knowledge. The academic program focuses on air and space power through a historical perspective, Air Force mission organization and customs, military management fundamentals, and national security process and advanced leadership ethics.
Army ROTC The Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) is a commissioning program for the U.S. Army that emphasizes academic scholarship, athletic ability and leadership. The academic program emphasizes military science; team building and leadership development; and advanced military tactics, logistics and decision-making.
Art, Art History & Visual Studies The Art, Art History & Visual Studies department has three distinct parts: Visual Arts, Art History, and Visual & Media Studies. But all of our faculty and students – undergraduate and graduate alike – are engaged in international research, interdisciplinary learning, and the study of visual culture across geographic and historical categories, experienced through the perspectives of theory and practice, methodology and criticism, and digital technologies.
Asian & Middle Eastern Studies The Asian and Middle Eastern Studies department explores Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese, and Korean culture through the lens of language and literature; social movements, nationalism and diaspora; popular culture and the media; gender, visuality and feminism; film theory, cinema and aesthetics; and the implications of religion on identity and globalization. The faculty offers language programs in Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Persian and Sanskrit. At the undergraduate level, we offer a major and a minor, with concentrations in East Asia or the Middle East. At the graduate level, we sponsor a M.A. in Critical Asian Humanities, and a joint graduate certificate in Middle East Studies.
Biology In Duke's Department of Biology, we conduct research in a broad range of areas: ecology (including behavioral ecology, population biology, community ecology, physiological ecology, ecosystem analysis, and biogeochemistry), functional biology at the cell and molecular level (including cellular physiology, molecular genetics, developmental biology, developmental genetics, genomics, and bioinformatics, in both plant and animal systems), functional biology at the organismal level (including comparative physiology, functional morphology, biomechanics, and animal behavior), and evolutionary biology (including population genetics, evolutionary ecology, evolutionary morphology, macroevolution, biogeography, and systematics). Many faculty research programs span multiple research areas and levels of biological organization, creating a dynamic training environment for doctoral students interested in cross-disciplinary training. We offer a B.A. and B.S. in biology, with concentrations in anatomy, physiology & biomechanics; animal behavior; biochemistry; cell & molecular biology; ecology; evolutionary biology; genetics; genomics; marine biology; neurobiology; pharmacology; and plant biology. We also offer an undergraduate minor.
Chemistry The Chemistry Department is distinctive in many ways. The dynamic faculty includes a number of recent hires at the junior and senior level and many hold endowed chairs that recognize their special contributions to research, education, and service. The novel foci of our research programs take advantage of Duke's unique strengths and differential opportunities: chemical biology, nanomaterials, energy science, theoretical/computational chemistry, and molecular and biomolecular imaging. With publications in the world’s most respected journals and regular highlights in the national news media, Duke Chemistry faculty and Ph.D. students pursue an amazing range of cutting-edge research. Many members of the Department participate in interdisciplinary centers and training programs covering Photonics and Biophotonics; Developmental, Cell and Molecular Biology; Biophysics; Materials Science; Genetics; Pharmacology; and Toxicology.
 
Duke’s strengths have attracted excellent students who take advantage of the opportunities available both in Chemistry and across campus. A balance between research, teaching, and service is imperative. Our undergraduate courses are taught by our most distinguished researchers and by extraordinary educators, and we use and develop the best teaching methods and course content for our students. Graduate students are an active part of this mission. Although our Ph.D.s spend most of their time pursuing their own original research, they often organize new courses and participate in our strong outreach programs.
Classical Studies The Department of Classical Studies explores the languages (ancient Greek and Latin) and literatures, archaeology, art history, and histories of Greco-Roman antiquity, from 3000 BCE to 900 CE, from the Nile to the North Sea, from Britain to Bactria. Our students have the opportunity to work with renowned scholars, discussing big ideas in small classes. Research is broadly grouped in the areas of Archaeology and Visual Studies; History and Historiography; and Language and Literature. Our many resources include papyri and manuscripts in the Rubenstein Library, as well as the rich antiquities collection of the Nasher Museum. The Department enjoys close ties with AAHVS, History, Medieval/Renaissance Studies, Philosophy, Political Science, Religious Studies, and Women’s Studies, as well as with UNC Chapel Hill, especially through the Consortium for Classical and Mediterranean Archaeology.
Computer Science Duke's Department of Computer Science is a top 25 department with an emphasis on geometric computing; internet systems, networking & security; memory systems & massive data management; biological computing & nanotechnologies; and learning & modeling. Faculty research is highly interconnected with the disciplines of mathematics, statistics, engineering, nanotechnology, biology, biochemistry, medicine, economics, sociology, and the environmental sciences. We offer a Ph.D. and master of science in computer science, and a master of science in economics and computation. At the undergraduate level, we offer both a B.S. and a B.A. in computer science, and minors in computer science or computational biology and bioinformatics. Our curriculum provides students with a top-tier education in theory and fundamentals, but also helps you understand how to apply this knowledge to address the challenges facing society.
Cultural Anthropology The Department of Cultural Anthropology ranks among the top programs in the country. Undergraduates can either major or minor in Cultural Anthropology; in both cases, we strongly support study abroad, summer ethnographic research, and the senior thesis capstone experience. Our doctoral program prepares students to meld grounded field research with theoretical sophistication in doing anthropology sensitive to the challenges and complexities of making sense of human experience. Our department is on the cutting edge of new debates about globalization and diaspora, popular culture and mass media, nationalism and identity, race and sexuality, and the politics of tradition and modernity. We explore these issues through a range of theoretical orientations that include postcolonial and Marxist theory, feminist and critical race theory, psychoanalysis and psychology, political ecology and science and technology.
Dance

Faculty in the Duke Dance Program are internationally-recognized choreographers, scholars, teachers and performers committed to offering the highest caliber dance training and scholarship in an atmosphere that fosters conscious embodied practice, critical thinking, and creative risk-taking. Far-ranging exploration and expertise encompasses historical and contemporary African American and Afro-Carribean dance, music and religious practices; classical and contemporary Indian dance and dance theater; ballet and modern, post-modern and contemporary dance choreography and performance. Research also examines topics such as age and dance artistry, the role of gender in performance, performance and social change, and embodied forms of spirituality.

Duke provides high-quality dance training with a first-class liberal arts education. We are one of the top ten research universities in the nation, and also a college of choice for the dedicated dance student. Our courses are part of the regular curriculum and fulfill undergraduate degree requirements. Dance courses are also open to all students, and auditions are only required for repertory courses. The Duke Dance Program curriculum is designed to encourage the exploration of dance from interdisciplinary perspectives: historical, cultural, aesthetic, literary, technological, musical, scientific and creative. Students are able to customize their undergraduate dance curriculum by choosing one of the three study concentrations.

Economics The Economics department is rapidly approaching the top ten programs nationally.  It is broadly focused on econometrics, micro- and macro-economic theory, and applied economics, with distinctive collaborations across these boundaries. Faculty research encompasses the broad fields of finance, international trade, development, public sector studies, law, business and monetary economics, with specialized scholarship focused on environmental and ecological economics, cultural, agricultural and natural resource economics, education, racial inequality, and labor and economic demography. At the undergraduate level, we offer a B.S. or a B.A. in economics, minors in economics and finance, and a finance concentration. At the master's level, we offer a master of arts in economics, a master of arts in analytical political economy, a master of science in economics and computation, and a master of science in statistical and economic modeling. We also offer a Ph.D. program in economics. 
Education Duke's Program in Education is accredited by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. Our small class size creates a highly personalized learning environment for our students. We offer several options for teacher certification. For Undergraduates: We offer a Minor in Education, and two teacher preparation programs (Elementary and Secondary Education) that lead to licensure in North Carolina and beyond. Service learning and field experiences are a foundation of all our programs. For Graduate Students: We offer a year-long Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) degree that explores the most exciting and challenging questions in education research and practice. For In-Service Teachers: We offer a non-degree Academically/Intellectually Gifted add-on licensure program.
English

Ranked among the top ten English departments in the country, we work in different historical periods and national political contexts. Our faculty shows how various literatures in English make or fail to make a coherent world out of the conflicts and contradictions that characterize a genre, an author, or a moment in literary history. Our Medievalists pursue such concepts as forgiveness, reform, protest, and gender difference across the line traditionally separating the Middle Ages from the Early Modern periods. Faculty interested in the eighteenth century might consider how Jane Austen redefines notions of sympathy and happiness for a purely secular world. Refusing to let the Romantic poets live in a self-created world of imagination, other scholars examine how these writers adapted the scientific theories of that moment to rethink man’s place in the natural world. So, too, in reading Dickens or George Eliot, faculty examine how new theories of evolution and breakthroughs in physics altered the landscape in which characters live out far from exemplary lives.  Perhaps one of the strongest groups of its kind in the country, our specialists in African American literature and culture work at the intersection of the arts, law, literature, and sexuality studies. American literature at Duke is known for interdisciplinary scholarship that brings such fields as medicine, science, ethnic studies and theories of diaspora into conversation with literature. In using poetry and fiction to imagine worlds, formulate a voice, and position a virtual self within that world, our creative writers contribute a vital element to this collective endeavor. In recent years, faculty from several of these areas have joined our modernists and post-colonialists in searching the literary and cultural past for answers to a new set of questions: When did globalization begin? Which elements of contemporary culture become international, which remain local? What does it mean to be a citizen of such a world?

At the undergraduate level, students can major or minor in English, and we offer a minor in creative writing. At the graduate level, we offer a Ph.D. in English, and a joint Juris Doctor/Master of Arts in English degree.

Evolutionary Anthropology Duke's Evolutionary Anthropology department focuses on understanding non-human primate and human biology in an evolutionary context. Areas of research include evolutionary medicine; functional morphology; paleontology; primate behavior & ecology; primate cognition/human cognitive evolution; and systematics & comparative methods. At the undergraduate level, we offer a major and minor in evolutionary anthropology. At the graduate level, we offer a Ph.D. in evolutionary anthropology.
Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies The Duke Program in Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies is dedicated to exploring gender identities, relations, practices, theories and institutions. We offer an undergraduate major and minor, and a graduate certificate in Feminist Studies. Faculty scholarship encompasses historical, political, literary, philosophical, economic, representational, technological, sociological and scientific analyses. Research themes include the social impacts of the intersectionality of gender, race and class; sexuality and reproductive ethics; food politics and alternative approaches to economics; women’s writing and feminism in contemporary art; ecofeminism, ethics and human rights; religion and psychoanalysis; identity and subjectivity in the Arab world; Anglo and Francophone literature; and feminist theory.
German Studies Research in the German Studies department spans German ethics, intellectual history, theory and philosophy; literary history and criticism, including an analysis of memoir, medieval and 18th through 20th century literature, Holocaust literature and German poetics; broad cultural studies of German realism, modernism, gender, and religion and secularization; and expression through modern German drama. Duke is also known for its innovative and highly ranked joint PhD in German Studies with the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. We offer a major and minor in German, extensive language courses in German, and administer the Duke in Berlin global education program.
Health, Wellness & Physical Education The Department of Health, Wellness and Physical Education (HWPE) provides academic opportunities to students through a wide variety and diverse collection of course offerings in both activity and lecture based theory classes.
History The History department is among the top programs nationally. Faculty research encompasses intellectual, legal, medical and military history; politics, public life and governance; labor and working class history; gender, race and ethnicity studies; global transnational history and comparative colonial studies; religion and social movements; and an emphasis in medieval and early modern history. Regional specializations include early North America, Antebellum U.S., Modern America, Afro-America, American South, Latin America, Africa, Europe, British Empire, South Asia, Japan, China, Russia, and the French Caribbean and the Atlantic World. At the undergraduate level, we offer a major in history with both thematic or geographic concentrations, and a minor in history. At the graduate level, we offer a Ph.D. in history.
International Comparative Studies The International Comparative Studies Program helps students create coherent bachelor degree programs that emphasize the study of critical transnationalism. Students engage in interdisciplinary coursework focused on regions, engage in global education programs, and integrate the fields of culture, history, politics and language
Linguistics The Linguistics Program is a unique inter-disciplinary program offering undergraduate classes, majors and minors, and honors thesis supervision. The program draws on faculty expertise from across the university to provide an education which is both deep and broad. Particular research and teaching strengths include language and the brain (neurolinguistics), language change (historical linguistics), language and society (sociolinguistics) and language and politics. Linguistics majors are able to analyze and use language effectively, but they also develop excellent problem-solving, pattern-recognition and critical thinking skills that are highly valued in the job and graduate school markets. Many students go on to law or medical school, or other post-graduate training; others successfully pursue careers in a variety of fields including the media, advertising and marketing, finance, and education.
Literature The Literature department is unique in its makeup and a national leader in the theory, philosophy and politics of literature and media conceptualized within a global and postcolonial framework. Our research spans philosophy, literature & aesthetics; film & new media; critical race theory; feminisms, gender & sexuality; globalization & post coloniality; literature & cultural studies; Marxism & critical theory; modernism & modernity; psychoanalysis; science studies, the Americas and the U.S. Our undergraduate degree is called Global Cultural Studies. At the graduate level, we offer a Ph.D. in Literature. 
Mathematics Research in the Department of Mathematics spans theoretical to applied mathematics. Faculty interests encompass algebra and combinatorics; analysis; biological modeling; computational mathematics; differential & algebraic geometry; mathematical physics; number theory; PDE & dynamical systems; physical modeling; probability; signals, images and data; and topology. U.S. News and World Report ranks our department in the top 20 for pure mathematics, and in the top 15 for applied mathematics. We offer both a B.A. and B.S. in mathematics, and a minor in math. At the graduate level, we offer a Ph.D. in math.
Music The Music department faculty are a mixture of musicologists, composers, ethnomusicologists, and performers whose work embraces the many ways we perform, create and comprehend music. Specializations include American vernacular music, jazz, seventeenth-century Italian, nineteenth-century German, and twentieth-century British music, Iberian keyboard music, French musical culture, theater, film, and melodrama, South African Ngoma, and sound studies. Our highly-regarded program in composition attracts some of the best aspiring composers from around the world, and our performance faculty guides undergraduate musicians in instrumental, vocal, and conducting lessons, and in a variety of large and small ensembles. We offer an undergraduate major and minor with the option of a concentration in performance. At the graduate level, we offer Ph.D. programs in composition, ethnomusicology and musicology.
Navy ROTC The Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) is a commissioning program for the U.S. Navy emphasizing naval science, physical competence, and leadership. The academic program encompasses naval orientation, seapower and maritime affairs, naval leadership and management, naval ship systems, navigation and naval operations, naval tactical systems, and leadership and management.
Philosophy Duke's Department of Philosophy has a strong faculty that is committed to excellence in both research and teaching. In a recent ranking of philosophy programs in the United States, the department was recognized for particular strength in the areas of philosophy of biology (rated as one of the two top programs in this area), philosophy of mind, political philosophy, applied ethics, philosophy of social science, 17th- and 18th-Century philosophy and Chinese philosophy. Expertise in the Department also extends to other areas of the history of philosophy such as ancient philosophy, Kant, 20th-Century analytic philosophy, and history and philosophy of science, cognitive science, moral psychology, normative ethics, philosophy of law, metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of language, and philosophical logic. We offer an undergraduate major and minor, a Ph.D. in philosophy, and a joint Juris Doctor/Master of Arts degree.
Physics Research in the Physics Department ranges from astrophysics to condensed matter physics and nanoscale materials exploration, to non-linear and complex systems and biological physics with applications for medicine, energy and environmental science. Faculty conducts highly collaborative international research in high-energy physics; accelerator-based experimental nuclear physics; theoretical nuclear and particle physics; explorations of geometric and theoretical physics; and experimental quantum optical physics. U.S. News and World Report ranks our department in the top 6 for nuclear physics, and in the top 30 for physics. We offer undergraduate degrees in physics and biophysics, and doctoral program in physics.
Political Science The Political Science department has been among the top ten programs nationally for many years. Its faculty contributes to the general fields of political economy, philosophy, institutions including law, and public policy. Our research encompasses the broad fields of normative political theory & philosophy; political behavior & identities; political economy; political institutions; political methodology; and security, peace & conflict. At the undergraduate level, we offer a bachelor of science in political science and a minor. We are also affiliated with the Certificate in Philosophy, Politics & Economics, and the Certificate in Decision Sciences. At the graduate level, we offer a master of arts or Ph.D. in political science, a master of arts in analytical political economy, and a joint master of arts/Juris doctor program.
Psychology & Neuroscience The Department of Psychology and Neuroscience is internationally known for leadership in cognitive science and clinical psychology. Research in the fields of developmental psychology, social and personality psychology, cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience, and systems and integrative neuroscience deploy techniques such as experimental research with humans and animals, surveys, longitudinal field studies, brain imaging, genetic mapping and computational models. Scholarly exploration addresses topics in decision-making, self-concept and self-regulation, post traumatic stress disorder, health and behavior, achievement and motivation, emotional memory, language acquisition and visual perception, to name just a few. The department supports a broad range of undergraduate programs including a major and minor in Psychology and a major and minor in Neuroscience, as well as a broad set of graduate training areas within the PhD Program in Psychology and Neuroscience.  Our faculty also serve as mentors for the graduate admitting program in Cognitive Neuroscience as well as for other undergraduate, doctoral, and postdoctoral programs throughout Duke.
Religious Studies The Religious Studies department is very distinguished nationally, and explores the social organization and impact of religion in ancient and modern cultures through critical theory, literary and visual studies, and religious expression and influence on the media. Areas of expertise include early foundational documents of Judaism and Christianity (Hebrew Bible and New Testament); the religious traditions of Late Antiquity; Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism both in their historical depth and in their contemporary manifestations. Along with exploring theoretical questions surrounding religion, the multiple religious traditions of the present-day American landscape are studied in culture, law and contemporary thought. At the undergraduate level, we offer a major in Religious Studies. We also offer a Master of Arts program in Religion, and we operate, together with the Divinity School, Duke’s Graduate Program in Religion, which has ranked among the top programs in the country for the past twenty years.
Romance Studies Duke Romance Studies is a national leader for having integrated the study of literature and language. Our curriculum, from language to culture courses, explores the rich traditions of Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Italian cultures, both in their countries of origin, and in the cultures of diaspora, including Latin America, the Caribbean, Quebec, and the Chicano border. Our research thus covers, both historically and geographically, an extensive area of the planet: from Europe to Africa and South America; from the Caribbean to the Philippines; from the Mediterranean to Indochina and the Mauritius Islands.  We offer majors in Brazilian & Global Portuguese; French & Francophone Studies; Italian Studies; Romance Studies; and Spanish, Latin American, and Latino/a Studies. We offer minors in Brazilian & Global Portuguese; French Studies; Italian Studies; and Spanish Studies. And we are affiliated with the Certificate in Latin American Studies; and the Certificate in Latino/a Studies in the Global South. We also offer a Ph.D. in Romance Studies with tracks in French & Francophone Studies, Italian Studies, Romance Studies or Spanish & Latin American Studies; and a joint Juris doctor/master of arts in Romance studies. 
Slavic & Eurasian Studies The Slavic and Eurasian Studies department explores the cultures and histories of Russia in its various historical incarnations (the tsarist empire, the Soviet Union, Russia) and Central/Eastern Europe — Bosnia, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia. Our courses and faculty research interests focus on a wide variety of topics: Russian language, literature, film, and translation; Polish language, literature, film, and popular culture; cognition and culture; semiotics; gender and language, literature, and film; medical humanities; death studies; imperial studies, gulag studies; Islamic studies; Jewish studies in Eastern Europe; and power and politics.
Sociology The Sociology department is ranked among the top 12 and rapidly approaching the top ten programs in the country. Faculty specializes in comparative and historical sociology; population studies across time focusing on fertility, migration, morbidity and mortality; medical and economic sociology; social stratification; and the sociology of morality and religion. Quantitative and qualitative approaches are deployed to understand the structure and dynamics of human societies, particularly in a global context; the formal organization and social implications of health care policy, infectious and chronic illness patterns and social epidemiology; society as structured by race, education, occupations, markets and economic organizations; social networks, personality and group processes; and how religion shapes and is shaped by organizations, subcultures and demographic composition. We offer a major and minor in sociology, and a Ph.D. in sociology.
Statistical Science The Department of Statistical Science is a top 10 program in statistical science and the premier Bayesian statistics program in the world. We are helping Duke lead the data and computational revolution through our research, teaching, and service. Our award-winning faculty and students produce groundbreaking research in theory, methods, and applications that ultimately advances science and positively impacts society. Our faculty and students collaborate with researchers in industry, government, and academia in just about every discipline, ranging from computation, environment, health, the humanities, the natural sciences, the social sciences, sports, and more (see Interdisciplinary Collaborations). We offer a B.A./B.S. and minor in statistical science, as well as an interdepartmental major in data science. We offer a master of science in statistical science and a Ph.D. in statistical science. 
Theater Studies Duke's Department of Theater Studies combines the study of the history and theory of theater, performance and dramatic literature in all its dimensions. In addition, the department is a laboratory for the development of new dramatic works and the exploration and integration of new media in theater. We offer a major and minor in theater studies, and directly sponsor several study abroad programs. Faculty research encompasses set and lighting design; directing, playwriting, TV writing, dramatic literature, acting and puppetry; performance and film studies; literary and cultural criticism, and theater history with specialization in areas such as Chinese theater, Russian theater, and British and American theater.                                                                                           
Thompson Writing Program Ranked among the top five writing programs in the country, Thompson Writing Program (TWP) faculty contribute to world-class research in Writing Studies, exploring the impacts of written, oral, and digital rhetoric across time, people, and place, and advancing knowledge about how people learn to communicate in scholarly, professional, and other settings. At the undergraduate level, TWP offers courses in the complexities of written, verbal, and digital communication across and within disciplines, enabling Duke undergraduates to gain expertise in communication across diverse contexts. At the graduate level, TWP offers courses and programming to enable students to cultivate excellence in their own writing and in the teaching of writing. Promoting a culture of writing at Duke more broadly, TWP consults with faculty who teach writing in a wide range of courses through the Writing-in-the Disciplines program, supports Duke faculty with their own writing through the TWP Faculty Write Program, and provides consulting and undergraduate peer-consultant opportunities through the TWP Writing Studio.