Duke is introducing a new Technology Policy minor this spring, expanding academic options for all Trinity students interested in the intersection of technology, politics and society. The minor, a collaboration between Trinity College of Arts & Sciences and the Sanford School of Public Policy, is designed to meet the growing demand among undergraduates for structured coursework that connects technological change to its broader public implications. Although the minor will be housed in Sanford, it is… read more » about Trinity Launches New Technology Policy Minor with Sanford
Jobie Hill, a Ph.D. student in Duke’s Department of History, was announced as a 2025 recipient of a prestigious Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) Grant for her project Bearing Witness to Enslaved Women and Their Future Issue and Increase in the Massie Family’s 18th- and 19th-Century Reproductive Labor Systems (Bearing Witness). The project was one of only sixteen digitization projects that received funding through the Digitizing Hidden Collections: Amplifying Unheard… read more » about Duke Graduate Student Jobie Hill Awarded CLIR Grant to Fund Digitization Project
If you spend enough time on a college campus, you might hear some unfair assumptions about Computer Science students, like they’re all “tech people” who spend long days coding in dark rooms. Or, increasingly, you might hear that the field itself is losing momentum now that AI can write so much code. But in 2026, those myths collapse the moment you look at what computer science actually is — and what today’s students are doing with it.For starters, computer science isn’t just coding. Coding is to Computer… read more » about Computer Science: The Major that (Still) Opens Doors in Every Direction
On January 8, Duke mathematician Jonathan Mattingly joined a delegation of 290 educators, students and researchers from the mathematical sciences community on a visit to Capitol Hill, where they met with their congressional representatives and advocated for sustained federal support of mathematics. Organized by the American Mathematical Society, the #MathSciOnTheHill event highlighted the profound impact of mathematics and reinforced the importance of federal investment in research and education across the… read more » about Duke Mathematicians Engage Lawmakers in Washington to Champion STEM Investment
Trinity students are encouraged to follow curiosity wherever it may take them. While some academic paths stay rooted in a single department, others emerge at an intersection of disciplines. For the latter journeys, Program II provides a space where undergraduates can design an intentional degree that reflects the full landscape of their curiosity, ambition and engagement beyond the classroom — connecting passions rather than choosing between them.“For students who haven’t quite found the one single major that truly… read more » about Charting an Individualized Degree with Program II
From primate biology to modern weight loss debates, Herman Pontzer, PhD, traces how evolution shaped a metabolism built for movement, adaptation, and survival. Evolutionary anthropologist Herman Pontzer, PhD, thought he knew what he’d find when he traveled to Tanzania to live among the Hadza, one of the last remaining hunter-gatherer communities on Earth. The Hadza walk miles each day across the dry savannah, hunting game and gathering roots, berries, and honey. Surely, Pontzer figured, they must burn more… read more » about Why Exercise Doesn’t Burn More Calories — And Why That’s Not the Point
Quietly tucked behind Physics on West Campus, an unassuming concrete building conceals one of Duke’s best-kept secrets. The brutalist austerity and lack of signage reveal little, yet beneath its asphalt parking lot sprawls a subterranean warren of thick-walled rooms that have borne witness to 60 years of nuclear physics research. While the landscape around TUNL has changed over 60 years, the work inside remains constant. (left: Duke University Archives; right: Margo Lakin/Trinity… read more » about Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory is Self-Sustaining at Sixty
Mid-print in the Co-Lab, where students transformed their names into 3D forms using Hindi/Sanskrit scripts. (Photo courtesy of Kusum Knapczyk) Typically, a visit to the Innovation Co-Lab isn’t on the syllabus for most language classes, but in Kusum Knapczyk’s elementary Hindi classes, technology is definitely part of the lesson plan. The senior lecturer in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies has long embraced technology as a tool to help students connect language to… read more » about When Technology Imprints on Language Learning
Associate Professor of English Taylor Black specializes in 20th-century American literature, popular music studies and queer theory. A Duke faculty member since 2019, he is currently working on two projects: the American fascination with cults and cult leaders; and a cultural history of New York’s downtown arts scene during the 1980s. Black is the author of the 2023 book “Style: A Queer Cosmology” and a recipient of the 2025-26 Langford Lectureship Award. read more » about Faculty Spotlight: Taylor Black
It’s a bright morning in November, and the cafeteria at Fayetteville Street Elementary buzzes as school leaders and community partners gather to celebrate the grand opening of the school’s new Family Resource Center.“The room we’re going to see today was created by the community — our parents, our partners, our students and our staff,” says Principal Quincey Farmer. “A room for the people, made by the people, tailored to meet the real needs of our families. This is what community looks like. This is what collective care… read more » about This Is What Community Looks Like
The first memory I have of visiting an art exhibition was with my father in my hometown, Bogotá, back in 2009. It was the second solo exhibition of the American pop artist Andy Warhol in Colombia, whose visual language had a significant impact on the country. I was particularly struck by the organization of the artworks, the accompanying texts, and how art brought people together to the same space. Little did I know that sixteen years later, I would be involved in curating two exhibitions at El Museo del Barrio, the first… read more » about From the Classroom to the Galleries: My Internship at El Museo del Barrio
Stepping on campus, Eric Wang knew he wanted to pursue a track of study connected to research and medicine. Initially leaning toward a Chemistry or Biology major, that trajectory changed his sophomore year — thanks to Bass Connections. “Before joining the Language, Music and Dementia project team, I only saw music as an artistic endeavor and didn’t realize that it could literally shape the physical structure and functional networks of the brain,” the senior confesses. “That was my ‘aha moment’ and the… read more » about When Research Hits the Right Notes
When Jasmin Riley opens an email from her younger sister with another college essay draft, she smiles. Editing those sentences feels like déjà vu — back to childhood afternoons playing “school.”“When I was as young as seven, I used to make my sister play school with me,” Riley recalls, laughing. “I would handwrite assignments, grade them and try to make her the genius in the class.” read more » about Rediscovering a Love of Teaching Through Interdisciplinary Learning
In this column, Gabriel Rosenberg argues that while Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s proposal for city-owned grocery stores is a worthy experiment, his broader economic policies—such as free buses and rent freezes—will ultimately do more to solve food insecurity by addressing the root cause of poverty rather than just food proximity. read more » about What Everyone Gets Wrong About Mamdani’s Public Grocery Store Idea
Yan Liu, Associate Professor of the Practice in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (AMES) and Director of the Chinese Language Program has received the 2025 Klett Award for Sustainable Development Education in the World Language Classroom from the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). The award honors Liu’s innovative work embedding themes of global sustainability, intercultural understanding, and social responsibility into language education. Through courses such as China and the… read more » about Yan Liu Receives Award for Sustainable Development Education in the World Language Classroom
Shaundra Daily was recognized for her contributions to computing education, and Nicki Washington was recognized for contributions to broadening participation in computing. read more » about Nicki Washington and Shaundra Daily Named Distinguished Members of Association for Computing Machinery
An interdisciplinary team of Duke faculty is among the international recipients of a new grant from the Schmidt Sciences Humanities and Artificial Intelligence Virtual Institute (HAVI), a program designed to bridge the gap between AI technology and humanistic inquiry. Led by Martin Fischer, Research Professor of Chemistry and Physics; Shira Faigenbaum-Golovin, Assistant Professor of Mathematics from Bar-Ilan University (formerly of Duke); and John K. Delaney, from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the project… read more » about Duke Researchers Awarded Grant to Reveal Hidden Histories of Artworks Through AI and Imaging
The 2025–2026 academic year marks the fifteenth anniversary of The Goodner Equity Project (ECON 472S).What began as an experiment between Emma Rasiel, Richard Y. Li. Professor of the Practice of Economics, and hedge fund manager and Duke alumnus Blake Goodner (T ’96) has become one of the most distinctive learning experiences in the Department of Economics.The course grew out of the Duke Financial Economics Center (DFE), founded in 2010 under Rasiel’s direction to give undergraduates structured opportunities to apply… read more » about Investing in Duke’s Future: The Goodner Equity Project Turns 15
As a corner of Africa heats up, new research by Chris Drea shows how the future of the species rests with powerful matriarchs making tough choices for survival. read more » about Why Alpha Females Reign Supreme in Meerkat World
Terrie Moffitt and Avshalom Caspi offer feedback on a major genetic analysis of over a million people indicates that 14 supposedly distinct psychiatric conditions actually share significant biological overlaps, clustering into five underlying genetic groups rather than existing as separate disorders. read more » about Supposedly Distinct Psychiatric Conditions May Have Same Root Causes
Duke’s Trinity College of Arts & Sciences has invited its faculty to submit proposals for the creation of new research initiatives on campus.Following the successful launches of the SPACE Initiative and the Society-Centered AI Initiative, the Trinity Research Initiative will support new directions for interdisciplinary research through seed funding for nascent research collaborations, community-building, and complementary educational and outreach activities.Open to all areas of research and… read more » about Trinity College of Arts & Sciences Invites Proposals for New Research Initiatives
On a sunny day in late November, Thompson Writing Program faculty, Writing Studio consultants and friends gathered in the Classroom Building as five students presented their hard work. This was the culmination of Writing 255, Literacy Writing and Tutoring, a class that teaches composition studies, literacy studies and writing center theory. The course also focuses on training Writing Studio consultants, who work with Duke students and assist them with any and all stages of the writing process, from papers to… read more » about Sharing the Write Stuff: Writing 255 Students Present on Writing Center Strategies
Young performers from the community — roughly 70 singers from Durham School of the Arts and 25 student musicians from the Duke String School — joined in at Duke Chapel for Duke’s annual holiday concert, known as the Holiday Chorale.The concert on Dec. 2 featured uplifting choral selections from around the world, all centered on themes of life, peace and light for a holiday spirit.In keeping with tradition, the event also supported a local nonprofit. For the past few years the Chorale community has… read more » about Duke Chorale Concert Features Young Singers From Durham
Talent is evenly distributed — opportunity is not. It is this shared belief that has united Duke University, the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity, and the National Education Opportunity Network (NEON). Through this new partnership, more than 200 talented scholars from low-income high schools will have the opportunity to experience a course taught by a Duke University professor next spring. “At Duke, we believe deeply in the transformative power of education to change lives and strengthen communities.… read more » about New Partnership between Duke, National Education Opportunity Network to Bring College Courses to Low-Income High Schools
Positive mentors are the reason I am pursuing graduate school today. As an undergraduate at Virginia Tech, I was eager to get involved in research but unsure where to begin. I hesitantly reached out to one of my professors about joining his lab, and to my surprise, he enthusiastically welcomed me as a mentee. Since that first experience, every interaction I’ve had with science professionals has reflected that same intentionality and excitement. It has been refreshing and motivating to encounter such genuine… read more » about Three Qualities of Exceptional Mentors
Jenna Arafeh, a second-year History student at Duke University, has been awarded the 2025 Dante Prize by the Dante Society of America for her essay, “The Lone Star’s Resurrection: Abel Tesfaye’s Reimagining of the Commedia in Modern Sound.” The prestigious honor, awarded annually since 1887, recognizes the best undergraduate essay on Dante and remains one of the most distinguished literary prizes in the humanities. Arafeh wrote her winning essay in Spring 2025 as a student in Martin Eisner’s class, Dante's Divine… read more » about Jenna Arafeh Wins 2025 Dante Prize
Federal Reserve officials are widely expected to reduce the central bank’s target short-term interest rate at their Dec. 9-10 policy meeting, though a new survey of former Fed officials and staff points to doubt about whether an interest rate cut is the right decision. Many of the former officials surveyed said the U.S. central bank should keep interest rates steady for now, according to the survey conducted Dec. 1-5. Among the 32 former Federal Reserve governors, regional Fed bank presidents and staff who responded to… read more » about New Survey of Former Federal Reserve Insiders Shows Doubt about Looming Interest Rate Decision
Founded in 2023, the Duke Business of Retail Society (DBRS) fills a crucial white space in the wide range of pre-professional organizations available at Duke, creating opportunities for students to explore creative interests and career paths within the retail and consumer goods industries. Founders and co-presidents Sophia Yassinger, Class of 2027, and Nina Venter, Class of 2026, are the reason for the society’s vibrant success, evidenced by a recent feature in Forbes Magazine. We sat down with Yassinger and… read more » about From Classrooms to Couture: Two Duke Students Build a Path Toward Creative Industries
The Modern Language Association of America is awarding its 28th annual Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Publication Award for a Manuscript in Italian Literary Studies to Kate Driscoll, assistant professor of Romance Studies. Her manuscript, "Tasso and Women Readers: Literary Hospitality in Early Modern Italy," will be published by Cambridge University Press.The award is one of 23 that will be presented on January 9, 2026 during the association’s annual convention, to be held in Toronto. The members of the selection committee were… read more » about Kate Driscoll Receives Scaglione Publication Award for a Manuscript in Italian Literary Studies
In 2018, Hannah Salomons began a research journey that would span five years, several cities and more than 100 puppies training to be service animals.A project that began in her first year as a Ph.D. student evolved into one of the most detailed longitudinal studies ever conducted on puppy cognition.The goal? To understand how puppies develop thinking skills such as memory, impulse control, and the ability to interpret human gestures. She also is looking to uncover clues about how these skills evolved, and whether early… read more » about Inside the Minds of Puppies: How Do They Develop Their Thinking Skills?