The Cultural Anthropology “Fieldwork Methods” class, a core requirement for the major, shone a spotlight on the ways that Cultural Anthropology holds space for students to explore their intellectual vision. On Wednesday, December 7th, 2022, Professor Katya Wesolowski held a mock American Anthropological Association (AAA) conference as a culminating feature of the course. Each of the students worked on semester-long ethnographic research projects, presented their findings in front of peers and graduate CulAnth students.… read more about Fieldwork Methods, Fall 2023: A Mini-Conference »
The Duke Chronicle's Christina Ferrari interviews Professor Lewis about her class CULANTH102: American Indian Nations Today and her advocacy as a new faculty member at Duke, including her work with the Native American/Indigenous Student Alliance (NAISA). read more about Meet Courtney Lewis, Trinity's first American Indian professor who’s changing the game »
“This book is going to get me in trouble,” Kathryn Mathers says. It’s not because the associate professor of the practice of International Comparative Studies and Cultural Anthropology is looking for it. In fact, she thought long and hard about whether she had a right to tackle the subjects she analyzes in the book in question, “White Saviorism and Popular Culture: Imagined Africa as a Space for American Salvation.” Ultimately she decided it was worth the risk, because the book was born from the questions her students kept… read more about Kathryn Mathers’ New Book Debunks Common Myths About Duke Students’ Work in Africa »
IN-PERSON! Edible North Carolina: In conversation with Marcie Cohen Ferris, Andrea Reusing, and Courtney Lewis Epilogue 109 E Franklin Street Suite 100 Chapel Hill, NC December 7 @ 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm FREE – $35.00 Edible North Carolina documents and shares the vibrant voices and places of North Carolina’s contemporary food movement—an exciting intersection of culinary excellence, creative entrepreneurship, changing populations, historic yet evolving foodways, and a… read more about IN-PERSON! Edible North Carolina: In conversation with Marcie Cohen Ferris, Andrea Reusing, and Courtney Lewis »
Awards enable doctoral candidates to conduct research abroad -By OGA Staff November 28, 2022 The Office of Global Affairs (OGA) is pleased to announce that two Duke graduate students have been awarded the prestigious Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA) Award for the 2022-2023 academic year. Joe Hiller, Ph.D. student in the Department of Cultural Anthropology, and Melissa Karp, Ph.D. student in the Graduate Program in Literature… read more about Joe Hiller: One of two recipients of the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Award »
Long winter nights make for good reads. Duke publications from the fall and winter include attractions for readers of many interests. For history buffs, there's new history of the American West and a timely assessment of economic sanctions. For politicos, there's a blueprint for protecting democracy and a study of the contributions of migrants to various cultures. Movie fans can read about the history of Asians in theater and cinema and a surprising look at the politics of Marvel movies. Many of the books,… read more about Warm Up With Winter Books From Duke Authors »
“I've spent most of my life since I was 13 working very hard to learn other people's languages,” says J. Lorand Matory. He has just come from a midterm exam in his advanced undergraduate Chinese language and culture class, Chinese being the most recent of the numerous languages he has studied. “I find it liberating to think in the terms of others who grew up thousands of miles away and have a totally different cultural history, and to try on their ways of thinking,” he says. “How can you understand other people's point of… read more about J. Lorand Matory’s “The Fetish Revisited” Wins J. I. Staley Prize »
The twentieth-century encounter between Protestant Christianity and the upland peoples in the China-Southeast Asia borderlands has been one of the most significant historical developments in the region, and has reshaped both the communal life of ethnic minorities and their relations to the valley civilization. The vigorous expansion of Christian communities among the peripheral peoples has also been part of the modern transformation of Christianity as its center of gravity shifted away from the global north to the global… read more about Christianity, Modernity, and Ethnicity in the China South-East Asia Borderlands »
A Duke alum, Assistant Professor Tracie Canada joined the Department of Cultural Anthropology this fall. Her research and teaching interests lie in race, sport, kinship and the performing body, and her in-progress book manuscript, “Tackling the Everyday: Race, Family and Nation in Big-Time College Football,” describes and theorizes the lived experiences of Black college football players. We spoke with Canada about her work, returning to Duke, how sports shape everyday lives and her hopes for… read more about Canada Navigates the Worlds of Black College Athletes »
IN 2019, THE video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare rolled out its first single-mode playable woman character. Grab your controller, and you get to grow up as Farah Karim—fighting off attackers with a screwdriver as a young girl, struggling through graphic waterboarding, and then wielding an AK-47 against extremist invaders as a leader of the fictional Urzikstan Liberation Force. Farah’s resilient and brave. More importantly, though, Farah’s a good woman fighting for a good cause: freedom. Read… read more about Doctoral Student Summer Steenberg on Women and War »
Courtney Lewis wants to teach a class about “alternative economies” even though she doesn’t really like the term. “I don't like the idea of making a juxtaposition against capitalism,” she says. “But… because we live in this particular American society, we’re made to feel like capitalism is our only choice. “Actually, there are ways we can live with a mentality of an economy of abundance, instead of a mentality of an economy of scarcity. So, for example, how do other corporate forms give back to the community? This is… read more about Growing Businesses in Challenging Times: Courtney Lewis Examines Native American Economic Sovereignty »
Anne-Maria Makhulu received the Howard D. Johnson teaching award. Award recipients were selected for equitable and inclusive teaching, an ability to spark excitement about learning, the ways they encourage a deep dive into disciplinary ways of thinking, efforts to make connections beyond their courses, and for teaching innovations. Congratulations Professor Makhulu! read more about Anne-Maria Makhulu among 2022 recipients of the Trinity College of Arts & Sciences Teaching Awards »
The Arts & Sciences Council’s Committee on Undergraduate Teaching has announced this year’s recipients of awards for excellence in undergraduate teaching. Each recipient was recognized at the council’s Sept. 8 meeting, where Committee Chair Connel Fullenkamp expressed appreciation for the many nominations across all three Trinity divisions that included “creative and inspiring” portfolios. “It made our decision very difficult because there are so many varieties of excellence that we see in our community at Duke,” he… read more about Four Trinity Faculty Honored with 2022 Undergraduate Teaching Awards »
The honor recognizes Graduate School alumni for career accomplishments, promising endeavors, and support of graduate education at Duke. AYŞE GÜL ALTINAY Ph.D.’01 Cultural Anthropology Altınay is a professor of anthropology at Sabancı University and former director of SU Gender (Sabancı University Gender and Women’s Studies of Excellence) in Istanbul, where she has engaged in cutting-edge research and social-impact projects at the intersections of academia, activism, and well-being. Altınay’s 2001 cultural… read more about Cultural Anthropology Ph.D Ayşe Altinay Wins Few-Glasson Alumni Award »
At the start of every school year, cultural anthropologist and human rights professor Robin Kirk takes an informal snapshot of her students’ values. Barring violence, she asks her classes, what is the worst thing a Duke student could do in this class? Over the past couple of years, students have listed these worst-case scenarios: being a racist, using the wrong pronouns, and being disrespectful to a person in the class, said Kirk, co- director of the Duke Human Rights Center at the Franklin Humanities Institute… read more about Abortion Debate Illustrates How human Rights Are Not Absolute, But Evolving, Professor Says »
Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology, Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, Duke University Position Type: Tenure-track faculty Position Location: Durham, NC 27708 Subject Area: Cultural Anthropology Appl Deadline: October 15, 2022 The Department of Cultural Anthropology at Duke University invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in the area of medical anthropology, beginning July 1, 2023. Area of expertise is open. The successful candidate should have a strong and ethnographically… read more about Cultural Anthropology invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in the area of medical anthropology, beginning July 1, 2023. »
After initially fumbling its monkeypox response, the U.S. government is making vaccines more widely available for people in gay men’s sexual networks, who remain the most affected by the disease. Yet a deeper uncertainty persists. We know the Jynneos vaccine produces an antibody response that can protect against smallpox and may provide similar protection against monkeypox. But precisely how effective this vaccine will be against this current outbreak of monkeypox remains unclear. Read more.… read more about Our monkeypox vaccine plan is an experiment. That requires better care. »
