Goldstone, a Duke alumnus, joined the Department of Cultural Anthropology on Oct. 1 for a year-long engagement designed to foster collaborations, enhance student experiences and increase public discourse. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Brian Goldstone has returned to Duke, where he earned his Ph.D., as Writer-in-Residence and visiting scholar within the Department of Cultural Anthropology. A journalist and anthropologist, Goldstone won the 2026… read more » about Pulitzer Prize Winner Brian Goldstone Joins Trinity College
Instead of simply reading about the Declaration of Independence in textbooks, students in Trinity College and across Duke University are invited to experience it through movement, conversation, writing and reflection at the Nasher Museum of Art. Through January 3, 2027, the Nasher is home to one of the few remaining Stone copies of the Declaration of Independence, in collaboration with Duke Arts and as part of We the People: A Duke & Durham Initiative. The Declaration's… read more » about Duke Students Examine History Up Close With the Declaration of Independence
A professor of mine once remarked, “We are constantly talking about wanting students to have ‘transformative experiences,’ and I always think: great idea, but how would we even know it if they did?” The question stuck with me. This past summer, I finally got an answer. As an RA with the Transformative Ideas Summer Scholars, a new program supported by the Teagle Foundation, the Provost’s Initiative on Pluralism, Free Inquiry, and Belonging and We the People, I watched as 11 Durham-area high schoolers spent a… read more » about Transformative Ideas Summer Scholars Program Gives Students a Space to Change Their Minds
Everyone experiences hardship, but we don’t all make sense of it the same way. Some see suffering as a sign of personal failure while others see it as part of the human experience. A new Duke University research project will explore whether these different ways of understanding hardship shape how people respond to their own struggles — and to the struggles of people unlike themselves. Psychology & Neuroscience Postdoctoral Fellow Jinyoung Park will serve as the project lead for… read more » about Duke Psychologist Awarded $1.27 Million Grant to Study How Suffering Shapes Compassion
What happens to us as we age, and why do some of us stay healthier than others? For Melissa Emery Thompson, the answers live in a forest in southwestern Uganda. Melissa Emery Thompson is a primatologist who studies chimpanzee behavior to understand how physiology, health, aging and social relationships intersect. (Travis Stanley/Trinity Communications) The professor and chair of Evolutionary Anthropology has spent nearly three decades studying wild chimpanzees with the Kibale… read more » about Melissa Emery Thompson: What Chimpanzees Can Teach Us About Aging
Arts & Sciences Council recognized four Trinity College of Arts & Sciences faculty members on Oct. 1 for outstanding teaching. The Council’s annual teaching awards celebrate faculty who challenge and support their students, create engaging and inclusive learning environments, and help students connect their coursework to questions beyond the classroom. This year’s honorees represent Computer Science, the Writing and Rhetoric Program, Sociology and Chemistry. Brandon Fain… read more » about Arts & Sciences Council Honors Four Faculty for Excellence in Teaching
The work of understanding identity often begins with simple acts: introducing yourself, listening closely, questioning a familiar narrative, or pausing before deciding what seems fair. These moments may look small, but they can change what students notice. A first impression becomes a question. A missing story becomes part of the evidence. A conclusion becomes an invitation to look again. That practice of looking again is at the heart of a liberal arts education. Across Duke classrooms, students examine how people… read more » about Identity Is Complicated. That’s the Point.
A month ago philosopher Felipe De Brigard received a strange phone call. “Are you in a private place where you can have a private conversation?” the voice on the other end asked.He was on a work retreat surrounded by colleagues. “Just say you need to talk about your taxes,” the caller said. De Brigard excused himself to find a private space, panicking the whole time about his taxes—but it was actually the MacArthur Foundation on the line. De Brigard had been awarded a prestigious “genius grant,” an $800,000 fellowship with… read more » about Felipe De Brigard Explains How Our Brains Use Imagination To Reconstruct The Past
Duke leaders and faculty showcased the university’s expertise and explored future collaborations with India during Jitin Prasada's visit. read more » about Duke Welcomes India’s Minister of State for Electronics & Information Technology to Explore Partnership
Fed Vice Chair Philip Jefferson and New York Fed President John Williams said in separate speeches they believe the central bank has time to assess the economy before considering another rate increase, comments that reeled in investor expectations for a rate hike this month.The remarks — delivered just two days apart — don't mean the Fed won't adjust policy any further. Officials continue to warn that inflation is too high, and consumer price data due on Oct. 14 could play a big role in that debate.Yet close observers of… read more » about Ellen Meade Comments: Warsh’s Top Fed Deputies Give Markets a Clear Message
Priscilla Wald, R. Florence Brinkley Distinguished Professor of English U.S. literature and culture expert Priscilla Wald vividly recalls reading “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” as a child. One precise passage opened her to the questions that shape her scholarship and teaching today: Where do our beliefs come from and what happens when we begin to question them? “I remember reading that book and thinking, ‘Wow, Huck is willing to have values that challenge the values he’s… read more » about Why Reading Banned Books Still Matters in 2026
When Catherine Clune-Taylor, assistant professor of Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies, began college, she was headed for medical school. Or so she thought. Clune-Taylor’s research examines questions of autonomy, care and decision-making in the treatment of intersex and transgender children. (Travis Stanley/Trinity Communications) Her undergraduate degree in microbiology and immunology is from the University of Western Ontario, which she had chosen to attend in part… read more » about Bringing Feminist Theory to Medicine
Growing up in Brazil, Assistant Professor of Economics Felipe Lobel saw firsthand how government decisions can shape people’s daily lives. Brazil has experienced persistent inequality alongside major shifts in economic policy. For Lobel, those realities sparked an early interest in understanding how public policy works, and what happens when it doesn’t. Felipe Lobel’s research focuses on public economics. (Travis Stanley/Trinity Communications) “Economic policy struck me as very… read more » about From Better Data to Better Decisions
Reverend Dr. Rodney S. Sadler, Jr. earned his Ph.D. in religion, specializing in Hebrew Bible and biblical archaeology, from Duke University in 2001. He has taught at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Charlotte, North Carolina, for twenty-four years, where he is Professor of Bible and director of the Center for Social Justice and Reconciliation. read more » about Alumni Interview with Rodney S. Sadler, Jr.
Professor Weitao Yang, a pioneering contributor to theoretical and computational quantum chemistry, specifically in Density Functional Theory development and electronic structure calculations, has been awarded the 2026–27 Joseph O. Hirschfelder Prize in Theoretical Chemistry. The award, known as the top academic prize in theoretical chemistry, is presented by the Theoretical Chemistry Institute at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.Yang is the Philip Handler Professor of Chemistry at Duke University and one of the… read more » about Weitao Yang Wins 2026 Hirschfelder Award, Top Academic Prize in Theoretical Chemistry
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gathered hundreds of junior officers and enlisted troops at a base in Virginia on Wednesday to extol the virtues of basing Pentagon policy on culture-war issues and to complain about the news media.Calling it a “State of the Force” address, Mr. Hegseth doubled down on his decisions to fire dozens of admirals and generals, bar transgender people from serving and eliminate diversity programs. And not for the first time, he used vulgarities to describe certain groups of Americans.“No fatties, no… read more » about Peter Feaver Comments on Hegseth’s Attempts to Reshape the Pentagon
What if the future of biodiversity depends not only on how much rain falls — but on how and when it arrives? That is one of the questions driving the research of Assistant Professor of Biology Jacob Levine, one of three new faculty joining the department in 2026. Levine’s research is at the center of three lines of inquiry: the mechanisms maintaining biodiversity, how climate change alters plant communities, and the interaction between ecosystem management and wildfire.… read more » about Putting Plant Communities to the Test: Biodiversity, Climate Change and Wildfires
Questions tend to come first for Jorge Morales. How does the brain turn information from the outside world into an experience? Why are we sometimes looking directly at something without consciously seeing it? How do we know what we know — and recognize when we don’t? Although his degrees are in philosophy, Morales has been an interdisciplinary researcher for most of his life. Refusing to draw a line between disciplines, he has followed those questions across philosophy, psychology and neuroscience on a quest… read more » about For Jorge Morales, Questions Come First
Some career paths follow a straight line with no falter. For Elizabeth Lonsdorf, her journey has been more of a full circle, with a few serendipitous points along the way. “It’s definitely been surreal,” she says. Graduating from Duke with degrees in Psychology and Biology, she has built a rich career in primate research, teaching and conservation. Now, she’s back on campus as a professor in Evolutionary Anthropology and the new Academic Director of the Duke Lemur Center, the place where she first discovered a… read more » about Elizabeth Lonsdorf Bridges Primate Research and Conservation
The next breakthrough in agriculture may be growing quietly in a ditch — and Duke alumnus and David M. Goodner Associate Professor of Biology Fay-Wei Li is back on campus to find it. One of three new faculty joining the department in 2026, Li studies overlooked plants such as hornworts and ferns for clues to some of agriculture’s biggest challenges: How to grow more food with less water and fertilizer in a changing climate. For Li, returning to Duke fulfills a long-held dream while opening a new chapter in his… read more » about The Overlooked Plants That Could Help Feed the Future
Driving through the Navajo Nation, you might spot one of Chip Thomas’s large-scale photo murals at an abandoned shopping center along the highway. His work has graced numerous other buildings across the sprawling reservation.When Thomas, 69, was still in the early stages of his work, a friend told him he should get a MacArthur grant, he recalled, though he brushed off the comment at the time. On Tuesday, he received one.Thomas along with 19 others was a recipient of the annual “genius grants” presented by the John D. and… read more » about Felipe De Brigard, Duke Philosopher and Cognitive Scientist, Wins MacArthur ‘Genius Grant’
Felipe De Brigard, a cognitive scientist and philosopher, received the coveted fellowship for his work on brain and memory issues. read more » about Felipe De Brigard Awarded MacArthur ‘Genius Grant’
To some people, a flower may be a splash of color or a thing of beauty to admire in a garden. But to Associate Professor of Biology Natalia Pabón-Mora, a flower is a record of evolutionary problem-solving, an intricate structure built from genetic instructions, environmental signals and millions of years of adaptation. Pabón-Mora researches plant development, asking how flowering plants became so remarkably diverse. Why do flowers take on such different shapes? How do plants know when to flower? Why can fruits… read more » about Natalia Pabón-Mora is Searching for Instructions Hidden Inside Flowers
Finding a hole in the yard can be unsettling. Unless you see its inhabitant coming and going, you can’t be too sure what is living in there. A small rodent likely dug the hole pictured above, but sometimes other creatures can move in. That includes anything from yellow jackets and bumblebees to a frog or snake.Some people have a primal fear of snakes and become anxious at the sight of every hole in the ground. Ron Grunwald, a retired biology professor and snake expert in Durham, North Carolina, does his best to convince… read more » about Duke Professor Ron Grunwald Explains Where Snakes Hide—and What to Do If You Find One
The rocket rose past the rising sun on a muggy Florida morning. A few miles away, on bleachers outside Kennedy Space Center’s Apollo/Saturn V Center, Duke professors, students, alumni and staff craned their necks as the rocket climbed impossibly high, leaving only contrails as it left the atmosphere. The PA updated the crowd: The Falcon Heavy boosters had split from the main rocket, and still it climbed. As designed, one booster tumbled, fast, firing at the seeming last second to land a short distance from its… read more » about Duke Cosmologists Help Launch a New Era of Discovery
This result reveals a mechanism distinct from the conventional picture of particle-antiparticle production and could offer a new way to study phenomena that are otherwise difficult to calculate.“These findings signal a marked development in the quantum science field and open new avenues for us to understand string-breaking dynamics,” Christopher Monroe, one of the study authors and a professor at Duke University, said. read more » about Duke Professor Christopher Monroe on a Quantum Simulator Capturing Broken Quark Strings
Duke’s Community-Based Language Initiative (CBLI) brings language to life through relationships, real-world experiences and learning with communities. read more » about More Than Words: How Community Changes Language Learning at Duke
Duke University economics professor Felipe Lobel believes that the timing of the government’s announcement of an inflation-linked adjustment to Bolsa Família, just 17 days before the election, raises questions. Although he does not oppose seeking electoral returns from public policies, he argues that a predictable rule for updating benefit amounts would provide greater security for families and prevent the program from “being at the mercy of opportunistic electoral decisions.” read more » about Duke Economics Professor Felipe Lobel Explains Why Bolsa Família Adjustment Should Have a Rule
A team in California has built a modified lab mouse by filling part of a mouse brain engineered to lack much of its cortex with millions of human neurons grown in the lab, creating a potentially better model for studying serious brain disorders. read more » about Duke Law Professor Nita Farahany Discusses the Ethics of California Scientists Fusing Millions of Human Neurons Into Mouse Brains to Probe Brain Disorders
“If you had a choice of colors, which one would you choose, my brothers?” Richard J. Powell was a high school student in Chicago when he first heard singer Curtis Mayfield pose that question over the airwaves. “At the time, I was taken aback by the opening lines,” Powell confesses. “Not only was I without an answer, but as a budding visual artist, I was too in love with the entire spectrum to pick just one color.” But the earworm stayed, and decades later became the catalyst for Powell’s research on a… read more » about Richard J. Powell Reconsiders Black Art