Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

The Asian and Middle Eastern Studies department explores Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese, and Korean culture through the lens of language and literature; social movements, nationalism and diaspora; popular culture and the media; gender, visuality and feminism; film theory, cinema and aesthetics; and the implications of religion on identity and globalization. The faculty offers language programs in Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Persian and Sanskrit. At the undergraduate level, we offer a major and a minor, with concentrations in East Asia or the Middle East. At the graduate level, we sponsor a M.A. in Critical Asian Humanities, and a joint graduate certificate in Middle East Studies.

Classical Studies

The Department of Classical Studies explores the languages (ancient Greek and Latin) and literatures, archaeology, art history, and histories of Greco-Roman antiquity, from 3000 BCE to 900 CE, from the Nile to the North Sea, from Britain to Bactria. Our students have the opportunity to work with renowned scholars, discussing big ideas in small classes. Research is broadly grouped in the areas of Archaeology and Visual Studies; History and Historiography; and Language and Literature. Our many resources include papyri and manuscripts in the Rubenstein Library, as well as the rich antiquities collection of the Nasher Museum. The Department enjoys close ties with AAHVS, History, Medieval/Renaissance Studies, Philosophy, Political Science, Religious Studies, and Women’s Studies, as well as with UNC Chapel Hill, especially through the Consortium for Classical and Mediterranean Archaeology.

Dance

Faculty in the Duke Dance Program are internationally-recognized choreographers, scholars, teachers and performers committed to offering the highest caliber dance training and scholarship in an atmosphere that fosters conscious embodied practice, critical thinking, and creative risk-taking. Far-ranging exploration and expertise encompasses historical and contemporary African American and Afro-Carribean dance, music and religious practices; classical and contemporary Indian dance and dance theater; ballet and modern, post-modern and contemporary dance choreography and performance. Research also examines topics such as age and dance artistry, the role of gender in performance, performance and social change, and embodied forms of spirituality.

English

Ranked among the top ten English departments in the country, we work in different historical periods and national political contexts. Our faculty shows how various literatures in English make or fail to make a coherent world out of the conflicts and contradictions that characterize a genre, an author, or a moment in literary history. Our Medievalists pursue such concepts as forgiveness, reform, protest, and gender difference across the line traditionally separating the Middle Ages from the Early Modern periods. Faculty interested in the eighteenth century might consider how Jane Austen redefines notions of sympathy and happiness for a purely secular world. Refusing to let the Romantic poets live in a self-created world of imagination, other scholars examine how these writers adapted the scientific theories of that moment to rethink man’s place in the natural world. So, too, in reading Dickens or George Eliot, faculty examine how new theories of evolution and breakthroughs in physics altered the landscape in which characters live out far from exemplary lives.  Perhaps one of the strongest groups of its kind in the country, our specialists in African American literature and culture work at the intersection of the arts, law, literature, and sexuality studies. American literature at Duke is known for interdisciplinary scholarship that brings such fields as medicine, science, ethnic studies and theories of diaspora into conversation with literature. In using poetry and fiction to imagine worlds, formulate a voice, and position a virtual self within that world, our creative writers contribute a vital element to this collective endeavor. In recent years, faculty from several of these areas have joined our modernists and post-colonialists in searching the literary and cultural past for answers to a new set of questions: When did globalization begin? Which elements of contemporary culture become international, which remain local? What does it mean to be a citizen of such a world?

At the undergraduate level, students can major or minor in English, and we offer a minor in creative writing. At the graduate level, we offer a Ph.D. in English, and a joint Juris Doctor/Master of Arts in English degree.

Germanic Languages and Literature

Research in the German Languages & LIterature department spans German ethics, intellectual history, theory and philosophy; literary history and criticism, including an analysis of memoir, medieval and 18th through 20th century literature, Holocaust literature and German poetics; broad cultural studies of German realism, modernism, gender, and religion and secularization; and expression through modern German drama. Duke is also known for its innovative and highly ranked joint PhD in German Studies with the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. We offer a major and minor in German, extensive language courses in German, and administer the Duke in Berlin global education program.

Health, Wellness and Physical Education

The Department of Health, Wellness and Physical Education (HWPE) provides academic opportunities to students through a wide variety and diverse collection of course offerings in both activity and lecture based theory classes.

Literature

The Literature department is unique in its makeup and a national leader in the theory, philosophy and politics of literature and media conceptualized within a global and postcolonial framework. Our research spans philosophy, literature & aesthetics; film & new media; critical race theory; feminisms, gender & sexuality; globalization & post coloniality; literature & cultural studies; Marxism & critical theory; modernism & modernity; psychoanalysis; science studies, the Americas and the U.S. Our undergraduate degree is called Global Cultural Studies. At the graduate level, we offer a Ph.D. in Literature. 

Music

The Music department is a unique mixture of musicologists, composers, performers and ethnomusicologists, with scholarship encompassing music theory, history, ethnomusicology, composition, directing and performance. Research emphasizes the exploration of song, dance, theater and melodrama, oral tradition, music in film, and musical performance. Such work expands our understanding of specific cultures and historical periods, the role of arts in human rights expression, the politics of music production, and creativity and the music learning process. Faculty specializations include diverse genre such as Bebop and Hard Bop, Jazz music, Iberian keyboard, German opera and baroque sacred music, chamber ensemble and French musical culture, British music from liturgical to Pop culture, and post-19th century composition. We offer an undergraduate major and minor, and performance and lessons opportunities for all students. At the graduate level, we offer Ph.D. programs in composition, ethnomusicology and musicology.

Philosophy

Duke's Department of Philosophy has a strong faculty that is committed to excellence in both research and teaching. In a recent ranking of philosophy programs in the United States, the department was recognized for particular strength in the areas of philosophy of biology (rated as one of the two top programs in this area), philosophy of mind, political philosophy, applied ethics, philosophy of social science, 17th- and 18th-Century philosophy and Chinese philosophy. Expertise in the Department also extends to other areas of the history of philosophy such as ancient philosophy, Kant, 20th-Century analytic philosophy, and history and philosophy of science, cognitive science, moral psychology, normative ethics, philosophy of law, metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of language, and philosophical logic. We offer an undergraduate major and minor, a Ph.D. in philosophy, and a joint Juris Doctor/Master of Arts degree.
 

Religious Studies

The Religious Studies department is very distinguished nationally, and explores the social organization and impact of religion in ancient and modern cultures through critical theory, literary and visual studies, and religious expression and influence on the media. Areas of expertise include early foundational documents of Judaism and Christianity (Hebrew Bible and New Testament); the religious traditions of Late Antiquity; Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism both in their historical depth and in their contemporary manifestations. Along with exploring theoretical questions surrounding religion, the multiple religious traditions of the present-day American landscape are studied in culture, law and contemporary thought. At the undergraduate level, we offer a major in Religious Studies. We also offer a Master of Arts program in Religion, and we operate, together with the Divinity School, Duke’s Graduate Program in Religion, which has ranked among the top programs in the country for the past twenty years

Romance Studies

Duke Romance Studies is a national leader for having integrated the study of literature and language. Our curriculum, from language to culture courses, explores the rich traditions of Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Italian cultures, both in their countries of origin, and in the cultures of diaspora, including Latin America, the Caribbean, Quebec, and the Chicano border. Our research thus covers, both historically and geographically, an extensive area of the planet: from Europe to Africa and South America; from the Caribbean to the Philippines; from the Mediterranean to Indochina and the Mauritius Islands.  We offer majors in Brazilian & Global Portuguese; French & Francophone Studies; Italian Studies; Romance Studies; and Spanish, Latin American, and Latino/a Studies. We offer minors in Brazilian & Global Portuguese; French Studies; Italian Studies; and Spanish Studies. And we are affiliated with the Certificate in Latin American Studies; and the Certificate in Latino/a Studies in the Global South. We also offer a Ph.D. in Romance Studies with tracks in French & Francophone Studies, Italian Studies, Romance Studies or Spanish & Latin American Studies; and a joint Juris doctor/master of arts in Romance studies. 

Slavic and Eurasian Studies

The Slavic and Eurasian Studies department offers courses in five Slavic and Eurasian languages: Polish, Romanian, Russian, Turkish and Uzbek. We offer undergraduate majors in Russian or Slavic & Eurasian Studies. We offer four minors: Polish Culture & Language; Russian Culture & Language; Russian Literature & Translation; and Turkish Culture & Language.

Theater Studies

Duke's Department of Theater Studies combines the study of the history and theory of theater, performance and dramatic literature in all its dimensions. In addition, the department is a laboratory for the development of new dramatic works and the exploration and integration of new media in theater. We offer a major and minor in theater studies, and directly sponsor several study abroad programs. Faculty research encompasses set and lighting design; directing, playwriting, TV writing, dramatic literature, acting and puppetry; performance and film studies; literary and cultural criticism, and theater history with specialization in areas such as Chinese theater, Russian theater, and British and American theater.