Five undergraduates find themselves in honors projects capping their Duke experience Undergraduate research is one of the signature elements of the student experience at Duke. More than half of the students graduate with either capstone independent study or honors projects of distinction. These provide students with opportunities to develop their research skills, take deep dives into intellectual questions and work closely with faculty outside of the classroom. Below are five examples of honors students and the projects… read more about When Curiosity Becomes Research: Jessica Sue-Kam-Ling-Lewis »
Each year, Duke University awards Benenson Awards in the Arts, which provide funding for arts-centered projects proposed by undergraduates, including graduating seniors. This year, the Student Arts Award Committee awarded prizes to fifteen students for creative projects spanning film, music, visual art, art and design, theater and creative writing. Congratulations to Huiyin Zhou! read more about Huiyin Zhou Among Fifteen Students to Receive a 2024 Benenson Award in the Arts! »
GRADUATION AWARD WINNERS Judith McDade Prize in Cultural Anthropology Awarded to the graduating seniors majoring in cultural anthropology judged to have the most distinguished record in the major. Sabrina Sebastian-San Miguel Sabrina E. Sebastian-San Miguel represents the very best of combining medical anthropology, science and technology studies (STS), and disability studies—a burgeoning intersection in which Sabrina’s thesis and class work makes an important… read more about Congratulations to our 2024 Graduation Award Winners »
Five seniors have been awarded the Hart Fellowship for 2024-2025, a prestigious postgraduate fellowship for recent Duke graduates, offered by the Hart Leadership Program in the Sanford School of Public Policy. After graduation, the new Hart Fellows will travel across the United States and the globe to engage in ten months of community-based research, forming deep connections in a community outside their own and partnering with a local host organization to conduct meaningful research on social, political… read more about CA Majors Ashley Bae and Corali Francisco-Zelkine among five awarded 2024-2025 Hart Fellowships »
What is a valuable body? In her “Bodies at Work” class, Emily Lim Rogers showed students that the answer depends very much on whom, where and when you ask. By taking them on a voyage in time and space, the Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology invited students to challenge the modern idea that productivity is inevitably tied to ableness. Embedded in a system where productivity is often imposed on them from an early age, but challenged by their own disabilities — or empathetic to those around… read more about Louder Than Words: Student Art Projects Redefine Valuable Bodies »
What is a valuable body? In her “Bodies at Work” class, Emily Lim Rogers showed students that the answer depends very much on whom, where and when you ask. By taking them on a voyage in time and space, the Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology invited students to challenge the modern idea that productivity is inevitably tied to ableness. Embedded in a system where productivity is often imposed on them from an early age, but challenged by their own disabilities — or empathetic to those around them — students craved… read more about Louder Than Words: Student Art Projects Redefine Valuable Bodies »
read more about Tracie Canada: The Myth of the College Football Family Has Nothing to do With Love »
Nick Saban’s departure from Alabama shocked me as a football fan. But as an anthropologist and ethnographer, I was more concerned with what the news meant for the players. Only a few days after the 2024 College Football Playoff National Championship game, head coach Nick Saban announced his retirement from his post at the University of Alabama. Saban’s successor was announced the next day when the public learned University of Washington’s Kalen DeBoer, fresh off a loss in the national title game, would lead the… read more about The myth of the college football family has nothing to do with love. »
Cultural Anthropology is pleased to announce that Professor Ralph Litzinger has received the 2024 Dean's Award for excellence in mentoring, teaching, and inclusive initiatives. Congratulations, Professor Litzinger! Each year, the Graduate School at Duke presents the Dean’s Awards for Excellence in Mentoring to recognize the considerable efforts and accomplishments of faculty and graduate students who consistently serve as effective mentors. Designed to allow the university community to identify faculty and graduate… read more about Ralph Litzinger receives 2024 Dean's Award for Excellence in Mentoring »
Meet the leaders of C.A.U.SE., the worker-led union movement at Amazon's Rout Warehouse near Raleigh. Thursday, February 8, 11:45AM - 12:45PM Room 204B East Duke Building, East Campus read more about Unionizing Amazon! »
Formerly incarcerated women lead the struggle to rethink Colombia's broken prison system. What promise does a new restorative justice law hold? Read more. read more about Women Organize Against the “Double Punishment” of Colombian Prisons »
On November 18, Bertin Louis, the President of the Association of Black Anthropologists, inaugurated the Presidential Service Award at the AAA meetings in Toronto. Lee Baker is one of five awardees. The award has been named the *Lee D. Baker Presidential Service Award* in honor of the fact that Professor Baker has served in every ABA leadership role: President, Secretary/Treasure, Member of the Board, as well as the editor of Transforming Anthropology (ABA's Journal). Congratulations Lee! read more about Lee D. Baker awarded the Presidential Service Award »
This interview was conducted over email with Robin Kirk, Author/Co-Director of the Duke Human Rights Center@FHI/Professor of the Practice in Cultural Anthropology at Duke University, by Sarah Holehouse, a second-year undergraduate student working for the Duke Human Rights Center at the Franklin Humanities Institute. How do the issues of banned books and censorship intersect with human rights? Human rights can be divided into derogable rights—rights than can be limited for specific reasons… read more about Banned Books Week 2023: An Interview with Robin Kirk »
Celebrating Diane Nelson Diane Michele was born in Oxford, Ohio in 1963 to Donald N. and Lois E. (Genn) Nelson. In 1980, Diane began her lifelong relationship with Latin America as an AFS exchange student in Mexico. At Wellesley, as a National Merit Scholar and cultural anthropology major, she first visited Guatemala, where she would continue to study for over four decades. As a Ph.D. student in anthropology at Stanford, she continued her focus on indigenous Guatemalan life-worlds. Diane joined the anthropology faculty at… read more about Celebrating the Work of Professor Diane Nelson, 1963-2022 »