George Saunders, the celebrated fiction writer, was doing quite well writing short stories – winning prizes, earning acclaim, making a living. Yet novels remained elusive. “It’s like being a builder of custom yurts and then someone asks you to build a mansion. You say, ‘No, I don’t do that,’” Saunders said. “But wait a minute, maybe I could just put a bunch of those little yurts together.” Saunders did write a novel in the end, and “Lincoln in the Bardo” went on to win the Booker Prize. His comments come from an episode… read more » about Critics and Authors Talk Literature in Novel Dialogue Podcast from Duke English
A March 24 panel discussion in response to the increase of violence against people of Asian descent, including the mass shootings in Atlanta earlier this month, attracted more than 670 Duke faculty, staff and students. Moderated by Nayoung Aimee Kwon, the online event featured presentations on the historical context of anti-Asian violence from Susan Thananopavarn, Eileen Chow and Esther Kim Lee. Syllabus on Asian-American History and Culture In response to recent acts of violence against Asian Americans stemming from a… read more » about The History of Violence Against Asian Americans
While social media platforms can employ algorithms and other tools to help improve the level of public debate, the best way to decrease outrage and polarization is for everyone involved to be responsible for their own online behavior, three Duke experts said Wednesday. Speaking to journalists during a digital media briefing, the three scholars discussed civility, the powers and limits of big platforms like Facebook and Twitter, and the many misperceptions people have about those on the ‘other side’ of the political divide… read more » about Don’t Like Online Outrage? Look Inward
Henry Newson Professor of Physics Haiyan Gao has been named the next Associate Laboratory Director for Nuclear and Particle Physics at Brookhaven National Laboratory, according to a March 30 announcement from the research center. Brookhaven is home to one of the world’s largest existing particle accelerators, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, and also hosts the brightest x-ray synchrotron in the world. Research conducted at Brookhaven has had impacts in fields ranging from physics and materials to biology and medicine… read more » about Duke Physicist to Again Lead Premier National Lab
Editor's Note: A previous version of this article mentioned Grace Musila as another hire resulting from this search, selected to join the English Department. Due to a series of unanticipated circumstances and ongoing responsibilities she has in her current role with the Department of African Literature at the University of Witwatersrand, Musila will not be joining Duke this fall. A respected scholar of the political economy, Eric Mvukiyehe, will join the Trinity College of Arts & Sciences… read more » about Expert on Africa to Join Trinity Faculty
Herman Pontzer explains where our calories really go, and what studying humanity’s past can teach us about staying healthy today. read more » about Duke Researcher Busts Metabolism Myths in New Book
Graduate and professional programs across the university also scored impressive rankings in the U.S. News & World Report annual ranking of graduate programs released today. Duke University School of Medicine rose to third among 122 medical schools in the nation for research. In addition to the medical research rating, seven specialty programs in the School of Medicine placed in the top 10: Surgery (second); Anesthesiology (fourth); Internal Medicine (fifth); Radiology (sixth); Pediatrics (seventh, tied);… read more » about Duke Graduate Programs Score High In Latest US News Rankings
All four Duke University undergraduates nominated for the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship have won the federally endowed award that encourages students to pursue careers in the fields of mathematics, natural sciences and engineering. Yasa Baig, John Boom, Grace Dessert and Anish Karpurapu are among the 410 students awarded Goldwater Scholarships on March 26 for the 2021-2022 academic year. The Goldwater Scholars were chosen on the basis of academic merit from a pool of 1,256 natural science… read more » about Four Duke Juniors Named National Goldwater Scholars
In a new paper in Advanced Genetics, Dr. Charmaine Royal and colleagues say an array of factors — including environmental and social conditions — shape the course of illness. read more » about Sickle Cell Disease: More Than A Genetic Condition
Folding pork and chive dumplings as she spoke with Duke students on March 22, Eileen Cheng-yin Chow lectured and led a discussion about how food connects to many facets of life – and how those relationships have heightened or changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Chow, a lecturing fellow in Asian & Middle Eastern Studies, walked undergraduates through the ways in which food is related to health and our bodies, the environment, gender, class and labor, and so much more. The… read more » about Chow Leads Discussion on East Asian Food Cultures Against Backdrop of COVID-19
You can blame the Boy Scouts for Dr. William Morris’ career. That wouldn’t be such an unusual origin story for an ecologist. What is unusual are the lengths to which Morris takes his passion for the great outdoors. Studying nature wasn’t enough: he wanted to study nature in extreme environments. Morris’ research focuses on understanding how plants and the insects that eat and pollinate them respond to climate change. His work takes him to some of the most severe environments on Earth, including the 10,000-foot peaks of… read more » about Professor Bill Morris Named a Fellow of the Ecological Society of America
Nathaniel “Nat” B. White Jr., one of the first five Black undergraduate students at Duke, died March 19 in Atlanta. He was 75. White matriculated at Duke in 1963 along with Wilhelmina Reuben-Cooke, Gene Kendall, Mary Mitchell Harris and Cassandra Smith Rush. With White’s death, Kendall is the last surviving member of the original five. Born and raised in Durham, White attended Hillside High School. In a PBS-NC interview in 2013, White explained that he had intended to go to Hampton Institute, his father’… read more » about Nathaniel White Jr., One of First Black Undergraduates at Duke, Dies at Age 75
When he was 11, Chris Bail and his family moved from the Boston suburbs to the French Congo, a turbulent African nation whose fragile peace was routinely upended by three warring military factions. The 18 months or so living there -- while his father worked as a doctor and public health activist for the World Health Organization -- shaped Bail forever. He saw his mother nearly die when a knife was thrown near her at a market, and his father imprisoned when he refused to pay a bribe. Chris and his mother soon fled the… read more » about Fighting Online Extremism
DURHAM, N.C. -- Even if you can’t name the tunes, you’ve probably heard them: from the iconic “dun-dun-dun-dunnnn” opening of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony to the melody of “Ode to Joy,” the German composer’s symphonies are some of the best known and widely performed in classical music. Just as enthusiasts can recognize stylistic differences between one orchestra’s version of Beethoven’s hits and another, now machines can, too. A Duke University team has developed a machine learning algorithm that “listens” to multiple… read more » about Machine Learning Meets the Maestros
Through a Collaborative Project Expedition in Summer 2020, I had the opportunity to work with Jen’nan Read to redesign her Sociology 255: Immigration and Health course. Our goal was to create hands-on, project-based learning experiences with a local community partner that would enhance in-class lectures and academic readings on immigrant and refugee health. Jen’nan and I partnered with Rob Callus, Director of Youth Services at World Relief Durham (WRD), a federally funded agency that assists refugees by providing… read more » about Community Partnerships and Real-world Data Bring Refugee Health to Life in Undergraduate Course
Once coronavirus lockdown orders and social distancing rules went into effect, people began to consume more visual media than ever before. Streaming platforms saw their numbers surge as subscribers binged new shows and watched movies into the wee hours of dawn. Behind the scenes, however, million-dollar film and television productions were forced to come to a halt. In the interval, many independent filmmakers began to rise and release fresh media. Working with the resources and knowledge they had, new filmmakers seized the… read more » about Student Filmmakers Seize the Moment as Industry Adapts
Duke Entertainment, Media & Arts Network (DEMAN) is partnering with Duke Boston, Duke Asian Alumni Alliance, and the Art, Art History & Visual Studies department to present a virtual preview of Yuri Shimojo’s Memento Mori, a monumental painting series premiering in the US on the tenth anniversary of the Japanese Tōhoku earthquake, tsunami, and Fukushima nuclear crisis. A Conversation on Art & Healing: US Exhibition Premiere of Memento Mori Thur, March 11, 2021 at 8–9 p.m. EST via Zoom.… read more » about Yng-Ru Chen ‘01 on Why She Opened Praise Shadows Art Gallery
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. Henry W. Pickford is Professor of German and Philosophy. In this edited and condensed interview, he describes Adorno's role as a public intellectual; how Adorno's approach to reading philosophical arguments and artworks always included their… read more » about Meet Your Humanities Faculty: Henry Pickford