As part of its event series tgiFHI, the Franklin Humanities Institute is conducting interviews with its faculty speakers in order to familiarize broader audiences with the diversity of research approaches in the humanities, arts, and interpretive social sciences at Duke University. Dr. Darren Gobert is the William and Sue Gross Professor of Theater Studies and Professor of English. In this edited and condensed interview, he describes the process of reconstructing and imagining the unknowable in performance studies… read more » about Meet Your Humanities Faculty: Darren Gobert
As part of its event series tgiFHI, the Franklin Humanities Institute is conducting interviews with its faculty speakers in order to familiarize broader audiences with the diversity of research approaches in the humanities, arts, and interpretive social sciences at Duke University. Dr. Felipe De Brigard is the Fuchsberg-Levine Family Associate Professor of Philosophy, and Associate Professor in the departments of Psychology and Neuroscience, and the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at Duke University. He is also Principal… read more » about Meet Your Humanities Faculty: Felipe De Brigard
Researchers at Duke University will work with colleagues across the nation to ensure that future communication protocols used by the United States Air Force are suitable for handling the most data-heavy tasks imaginable, such as flying UAVs, and secure from adversarial attack. Led by Robert Calderbank, the Charles S. Sydnor Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Mathematics, and director of the Rhodes Information Initiative at Duke, and Vahid Tarokh, the Rhodes Family Professor… read more » about Duke to Lead $5 Million Center to Develop U.S. Air Force Wireless Communications Protocols
Christopher Johnston, Associate Professor of Political Science, co-authored an op-ed in the Washington Post about the research in his book Curbing the Court: Why the Public Constrains Judicial Independence. In it, he argues that the American public is "less willing to defend the Supreme Court’s stability and integrity than many political scientists believe — especially now, at a time when they’re so polarized ideologically." read more » about Why Americans are Perfectly Willing to Undermine the Integrity and Independence of the Supreme Court
The 2020 election stands out for many reasons, including voter confusion. For reliable information about the voting process this election season, Deondra Rose, assistant professor at the Sanford School of Public Policy and research director of POLIS, turns to a range of sources: WEBSITES • Our own vote.duke.edu website offers a wealth of information. From the homepage, students, staff and faculty can find the information they need to register to vote, request an absentee ballot and even sign up to receive… read more » about Who Are Your Trusted Sources for Information on Voting?
DURHAM, N.C. -- Transcription factor proteins are the light switches of the human genome. By binding to DNA, they help turn genes “on” or “off” and start the important process of copying DNA into an RNA template that acts as a blueprint for a new protein. By being choosy about which genes they turn on, transcription factors determine which rooms in the house are lighted and which aren’t, or rather, which components of a person’s genome are activated. A team of Duke researchers has found that transcription factors have a… read more » about Transcription Factors May Inadvertently Lock in DNA Mistakes
The COVID-19 pandemic has made technology essential to collective religious life. Livestreamed services, viewed from home, are the new normal. But a new study from Duke University shows the number of congregations employing technology during worship services was on the rise even before the pandemic struck. The 2018-19 National Congregations Study, conducted on the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic, found, among other things, broad use of smartphones during worship services. Congregations encourage their audiences to use… read more » about Going to Church? Bring Your Smartphone!
Sarah Gaither, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience has received the prestigious 2020 Sage Young Scholar Award. The Sage Young Scholar Awards recognize outstanding achievements by young scholars who are early in their research careers. The awards are intended to provide these scholars with funds that can be flexibly applied in extending their work in new and exciting directions. Previous recipients of this award have gone on to positions of intellectual… read more » about Sarah Gaither Receives 2020 SAGE Young Scholar Award
Kerry Haynie, an Associate Professor of Political Science, participated in a panel about political engagement, offering his take on which states will have the highest turnout, the impact of political action committees and more. Read the article at WalletHub. read more » about 2020's Most & Least Politically Engaged States
In July 2021, Marko Cetina will join Duke University’s Department of Physics as an Assistant Professor. An atomic, molecular and optical physicist, Cetina has used his wide-ranging research in light, lasers and atoms to both explore the basic physics of quantum phenomena and support the development of improved technology necessary for today’s leading quantum machines. Cetina will come to Duke from the University of Maryland, where he worked at the Joint Quantum Institute alongside Chris Monroe, who joined the Duke faculty… read more » about Marko Cetina: Building Quantum Machines to Understand Physical Processes
“I am fundamentally committed to Black feminism as a theoretical and political project,” said Jennifer Nash, who joined the Duke faculty as Jean Fox O'Barr Professor of Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies this year. “That’s where my heart is.” By following that guiding star, Nash has created an acclaimed body of work that includes two award-winning books and a third book coming next year. But her research is also deeply personal. “For me, every project has come out of the experiential,” Nash said. Since her… read more » about Unsettling the Romances of Black Feminism
North Carolina is changing. It’s more diverse than even just a couple election cycles ago, and people are leaving rural areas and moving to cities and suburbs. This all signals a shift in the state’s voting tendencies, making it a significant swing state in the upcoming presidential election. With the state poised to begin early voting, two Duke University scholars Wednesday discussed the state’s voter tendencies, changing demographics and crucial voting blocs. Here are excerpts from the conversation, held via Zoom in a… read more » about Experts: NC’s Shifting Population Makes it a Significant Swing State
In the 1990s, a movement inspired by activists, educators, and the Catholic Church sparked change that would help put Brazil on the path to more diverse universities. In his directorial debut, Travis Knoll helped to share the story of that movement in the documentary The Book Revolution. Knoll, a Ph.D. candidate in history who examines racial justice policy and religious civil society organizations, thought of the idea for the documentary after his involvement with another documentary about students living… read more » about Knoll Shares Story of Brazil's ‘Book Revolution’
Years ago, Theater Studies Professor Neal Bell was asked to do a complete screenplay overhaul of a horror movie being shot in Toronto. The director, who shared a similar theater background, remembered that Bell was a horror buff, so he flew him to Canada to see the finished movie sets (mainly those of a shady hospital). Then, the producers informed him that he had a mere two weeks to write a completed screenplay. While Bell always loved movies, he’d never written a screenplay—so he pulled a 14-day version of an all-nighter… read more » about Here, There Be Monsters
DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke students will soon emerge more prepared to use data to create new knowledge in a host of disciplines thanks to the newly launched Center for Computational Thinking (CCT). The new center is a response to the growing demands for more computational skills among new college graduates. It will infuse data literacy across the academic experience while simultaneously preparing students to consider the ethical, legal, and social impacts of technology. “The CCT will provide training in a co-curricular… read more » about Duke Launches Center to Bring Computational Thinking to All Students
Working in the fields of computational and applied math, new math faculty member Hongkai Zhao develops models and algorithms that can solve problems in science and engineering. Much of Zhao’s recent work has focused on inverse and imaging problems, which have direct applications for medical technologies such as CT scans, MRI scans, ultrasound, optical tomography and radar imaging. Based on different physical models and imaging modalities, the goal is to construct images or infer desired biomedical information from the… read more » about Hongkai Zhao: Creating Efficient Algorithms for Science and Engineering Applications
A virtual exhibit and event bring student scholarship to new audiences When Mellon Visiting Professor Silvio Luiz de Almeida arrived at Duke this spring, he partnered with History Professor John French to offer students a timely, global look at the parallel struggles for racial justice in Brazil and the United States – two countries in the Western Hemisphere with the largest Afro-descended populations. Almeida and French planned an innovative final project for their course: student contributions to an exhibit about a… read more » about Black Lives Matter Brazil-USA
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has devastated many sectors of the US economy. Businesses have failed and many Americans are struggling to feed their families and pay the rent. But there are glimmers of hope, perhaps including a much-discussed, though still uncertain second federal stimulus package under consideration in Washington, D.C. On Thursday, three Duke experts discussed the myriad ways American families and businesses are being impacted by the pandemic, as well as ways they can be helped. Watch the briefing on… read more » about Stimulus One of Few Options to Help Households, Businesses Survive, Experts Say
When he received the email announcing that he had won the 2021 Herman Feshbach Prize, Berndt Mueller was in the hospital recovering from surgery. “Suddenly I get that email,” Mueller said. “It was totally unexpected.” Awarded each year by the American Physical Society, the $10,000 Feshbach Prize honors “outstanding research in theoretical nuclear physics.” Mueller was selected for his contributions to the scientific understanding of the quark-gluon plasma that filled the universe shortly after the Big Bang, which has proven… read more » about Mueller Enters Next Phase With Feshbach Prize
Here are recently published and forthcoming books by Duke authors, from September and October: Marc Zvi Brettler, co-author: “The Bible With and Without Jesus: How Jews and Christians Read the Same Stories Differently” Annotated Edition (HarperOne, Oct. 27, 2020) Avshalom Caspi and Terrie E. Moffitt, co-authors: “The Origins of You: How Childhood Shapes Later Life” (Harvard University Press) Samuel Fury Childs Daly: “A History of the Republic of Biafra: Law, Crime,… read more » about New Great Reads from Duke Authors
DURHAM, N.C. -- Even when a person suffering from malaria is burning up with fever and too sick to function, the tiny blood-eating parasites lurking inside them continue to flourish, relentlessly growing and multiplying as they gobble up the host’s red blood cells. The single-celled Plasmodium parasites that cause 200 million cases of malaria each year can withstand feverish temperatures that make their human hosts miserable. And now, a Duke University-led team is beginning to understand how they do it. Assistant professor… read more » about Duke Researchers Discover How Malaria Parasites Withstand a Fever’s Heat
ACTIVE FACULTY ROBERT J. LEFKOWITZJames B. Duke Distinguished Professor of Medicine Robert Lefkowitz, M.D., has been a member of the Duke faculty since 1973 as a professor of medicine and a professor of biochemistry and chemistry. He won the 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, sharing the award with Brian Kobilka, who did postdoctoral work with Lefkowitz at Duke. The two were recognized for their work on a class of cell surface receptors that have become the target of prescription drugs,… read more » about A Look at Duke's Nobel Laureates
With the 2020 presidential election less than a month away, we have collected six Duke-authored books detailing the forces — social, economic, and historical — behind the electoral process in the United States. Afterwards, check out all the new Duke-authored publications from September and October 2020. These books along with many others are available at the Duke University Libraries, the Gothic Bookshop or the Regulator Bookshop. Duke Votes — a non-partisan, student-led organization — is also a source… read more » about Six Duke Books on Elections and Voting
As part of its event series tgiFHI, the Franklin Humanities Institute is conducting interviews with its faculty speakers in order to familiarize broader audiences with the diversity of research approaches in the humanities, arts, and interpretive social sciences at Duke University. Dr. Jasmine Nichole Cobb is the Bacca Foundation Associate Professor of African & African American Studies and of Art, Art History and Visual Studies. She is also a co-director of the “From Slavery to Freedom” (FS2F) Humanities Lab at the… read more » about Meet Your Humanities Faculty: Jasmine Nichole Cobb
As part of its event series tgiFHI, the Franklin Humanities Institute is conducting interviews with its faculty speakers in order to familiarize broader audiences with the diversity of research approaches in the humanities, arts, and interpretive social sciences at Duke University. In this edited and condensed interview with Dr. Luciana Parisi, Professor of Literature, she describes how she become interested in cyberpunk, the role of bacteria in human evolution, and whether technology is good, bad - or both. Dr. Parisi will… read more » about Meet Your Humanities Faculty: Luciana Parisi
As part of its event series tgiFHI, the Franklin Humanities Institute is conducting interviews with its faculty speakers in order to familiarize broader audiences with the diversity of research approaches in the humanities, arts, and interpretive social sciences at Duke University. Dr. Jessica Namakkal is Assistant Professor of the Practice in International Comparative Studies; Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies; and History. In this edited and condensed interview, she describes the importance of geography and… read more » about Meet Your Humanities Faculty: Jessica Namakkal
Brian Hare, professor of Evolutionary Anthropology, and Vanessa Woods, a research scientist in the same department, are interviewed about their book Survival of the Friendliest in this video by National Geographic. read more » about Why It Actually Might Be 'Survival of the Friendliest'