(Photo credit Jared Lazarus/Duke University)
'Belonging?' Initiative Invites Duke Community to Ask What Belonging Means
What does it mean to belong? As the Duke University community reflects on the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the Trinity College of Arts & Sciences arts and humanities departments are exploring that question.
Over the next year, through lectures, conversations, performances, exhibitions, courses and student-centered projects, the new Belonging? initiative brings critical inquiry and creative expression to questions about civic life, identity and community. The effort is among Trinity College's contributions to We the People, a university-wide commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
The initiative asks who has belonged in the United States, how communities have redefined belonging and what forms of belonging Duke hopes to foster in the future. The projects were proposed by Trinity departments and faculty as a way to approach these questions from a wide range of disciplinary, cultural and artistic perspectives. Trinity and Duke Arts have partnered to fund the initiative.
“The commemoration of this important milestone in our country’s history provides an opportunity to see how our sense of belonging has evolved over more than two-and-a-half centuries,” said Leo Ching, Schiff Family Dean of Humanities and the Arts. “Trinity’s arts and humanities departments have responded with creative, diverse and engaging opportunities to pose this question and reflect on its meaning.”
Belonging is often treated as an unquestioned good — something communities naturally provide and institutions can simply foster, Ching said. Yet belonging is shaped by histories of inclusion and exclusion, migration and citizenship, cultural difference, and structures of power that determine who is recognized and whose stories matter.
“The question mark in ‘Belonging?’ turns assumption into inquiry: Who has been allowed to belong in the United States over the past 250 years? How have communities claimed, contested and reimagined belonging? And what does belonging mean at Duke today and for its future?” Ching said. “The humanities and arts are uniquely positioned to explore these questions through interpretation, narrative and creative practice.”
Trinity department initiatives
Departments responded to a call issued earlier this year for proposals under the umbrella of the Belonging? initiative, which is closely aligned with the broader We the People commemoration at Duke and in Durham. We the People is examining the nation’s evolving identity through a series of public events including lectures, discussions, performances and more. Drawing its title from the opening words of the Constitution, the project invites us to consider who “the people” have been and whom we aspire to be within the ongoing story of the United States.
Belonging? includes the following proposals:
Religious Studies will lead a year-long Religious Belonging? initiative focused on religious freedom and forms of religious belonging in the United States and beyond. Panels, lectures, faculty workshops, curricular offerings and student activities will examine pluralism, inclusion and the relationship between religion, culture and civic life.
As part of We the People, rare copies of the Declaration of Independence will be displayed at the Nasher Museum. Romance Studies will invite reflection by simultaneously displaying Duke’s copy of the Haitian Declaration of Independence. Lectures, gallery talks and class visits will use the pairing to consider freedom, citizenship and nationhood in the Americas. In addition, the department will explore multilingualism and belonging through events featuring international authors and student creative work.
Theater Studies will use performance to investigate the Declaration of Independence and the boundaries of belonging. Its programming includes a reading and discussion of the Declaration, a guest lecture and events connected to the department’s production of “Witch” in November, student-created performances developed through coursework and a showcase featuring visiting artists.
Music is offering several distinct approaches to the initiative.
- Assistant Professor of Music Sophia Enriquez will present a screening of the documentary “Un Fandango en Carolina” along with conversation and participatory fandango to explore jarocho traditions, migration and Latino community formation in North Carolina.
- Lecturing Fellow of Music Allan Friedman will conduct a concert featuring "Credo" by Margaret Bonds with text by W.E.B. Du Bois alongside a new composition incorporating historical and contemporary voices, including Duke students.
- The Duke University Wind Symphony will trace changing ideas of We the People through music, narration and community collaboration, addressing migration, racial justice, LGBTQ+ history and collective memory.
- Instructor of Music Andrew Waggoner’s “Amerizade” will look at cultural appropriation and American identity through a new composition performed alongside works by Native American composers, including masterclasses and public discussion.
Asian American & Diaspora Studies, in collaboration with Dance and Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, will present Rail-Tracks, an interdisciplinary dance theater project exploring migration, displacement and belonging through the history and symbolism of railroads in the United States. Linked courses will support student research and creative production, complemented by a symposium, workshops, archival projects, exhibitions and digital materials.
Professor of the Practice of Dance Michael Klien will develop “Theater,” a participatory social choreography project designed as a civic space for dialogue and shared experience. Participants will be able to enter and leave freely during extended events, emphasizing belonging as something enacted through presence, conversation and democratic engagement.
The Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies will organize a year-long effort to examine how corn, cotton, tobacco and coal have shaped histories of race, labor, land, energy, environment and capitalism. Site-specific installations, documentary screenings, community conversations and course-based work will connect local histories to broader questions of extraction, environmental justice, Indigenous traditions, plantation economies and public health.
The Program in Latino/a Studies in the Global South is hosting Marcela Guerrero, the DeMartini Family Curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, on Nov. 13 for a discussion titled “LatinXness and Contemporary Art: Stories of Belonging?” The event will focus on what contemporary American art might be capable of revealing about America that the nation may not be able to narrate about itself, and where within the “American” story at 250 LatinXness fits as an aesthetic, intellectual, historical and curatorial formation.
Together, these projects demonstrate the range of ways through which the humanities and arts can consider questions of belonging. Combining scholarship and creative practice, Belonging? will help Duke consider the communities it has been, the communities it is now, and what forms of belonging it hopes to build for the next 250 years.
