For the first time ever, this fall semester Duke will offer an Indigenous United States language course — Cherokee.
“When you're studying the Cherokee language, you're learning philosophy, science and cultural practices,” said Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology Courtney Lewis, enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation and inaugural director of Duke’s Native American Studies Initiative. "It's about exposing ourselves to new ways of thinking across a broad spectrum of subject areas.”
Following two years of work by the Trinity Curriculum Development Committee, the Arts & Sciences Council adopted a new curriculum that will take effect in Fall 2025. The A&S curriculum governs much of undergraduate education at Duke and the changes will speak to the interests and needs of our students in the coming decades.