Lee D. Baker has been appointed vice provost for undergraduate education at Duke, Provost Alec D. Gallimore announced today.Baker, a professor in the departments of Cultural Anthropology and African and African American Studies, has been a member of the faculty for 30 years. He served as chair of the Arts & Sciences Council from 2005-2007, dean of academic affairs in the Trinity College of Arts & Sciences from 2008-2016, chair of Cultural Anthropology from 2017-2020, and director of the Program in International… read more about Lee D. Baker Appointed Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education »
Lee D. Baker has been appointed vice provost for undergraduate education at Duke, Provost Alec D. Gallimore announced today.Baker, a professor in the departments of Cultural Anthropology and African and African American Studies, has been a member of the faculty for 30 years. He served as chair of the Arts & Sciences Council from 2005-2007, dean of academic affairs in the Trinity College of Arts & Sciences from 2008-2016, chair of Cultural Anthropology from 2017-2020, and director of the Program in International… read more about Lee D. Baker Appointed Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education »
Every football season, you’ll see them on the sidelines, in the stands, and now, going viral on social media: Black mothers cheering, coaching, and carrying their sons through one of America’s most brutal sports. But behind the highlight reels and heartwarming Mother’s Day tributes, their everyday labor — physical, emotional, financial — remains largely invisible.Take Terricca Williams, the Florida mom who captured national attention last year for running football drills with her young son, Czar, in their front yard. Sure,… read more about The Mothers Who Built The Game: Honoring Black Women’s Labor In Football »
Every football season, you’ll see them on the sidelines, in the stands, and now, going viral on social media: Black mothers cheering, coaching, and carrying their sons through one of America’s most brutal sports. But behind the highlight reels and heartwarming Mother’s Day tributes, their everyday labor — physical, emotional, financial — remains largely invisible.Take Terricca Williams, the Florida mom who captured national attention last year for running football drills with her young son, Czar, in their front yard. Sure,… read more about Tracie Canada: The Mothers Who Built The Game; Honoring Black Women’s Labor In Football »
The following is a partial list of national, university, school and departmental awards presented to the members of the Class of 2025. In some awards where there are multiple winners, only members of the Class of 2025 are included. read more about Department Honors and Laurels for the Class of 2025 »
Having worked with horses for thirteen years as a farmhand and riding instructor, I have come to view them more as peers than animals. Horses and humans share a working relationship in the barn where I work, and although I generally believe this relationship is mutually beneficial, horses often seem to do more for us than we do for them. Read more about care networks of working animals. read more about Beyond a Contract: Rethinking Care Networks of Working Animals »
The ChronicleApril 21, 2025Last fall, I had the unenviable task of facing over 500 students in Griffith Theater for my 10 a.m. ECON 101 class the day after the presidential election. Throughout the semester, I had lunch with many of my students, and they had spoken to me openly about their fears and hopes. Regardless of the election outcome, I therefore knew some would be devastated while others would be elated — and so, days before election day, I had decided to have 500 donuts delivered at the beginning of class to… read more about We are under attack. »
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, theater, creative writing, music, dance, and visual art. read more about Announcing the 2025 Benenson Award Winners »
“This is a really sweet, full-circle moment for me,” said Tracie Canada, Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology.Canada’s first book, “Tackling the Everyday: Race and Nation in Big-Time College Football,” published by the University of California Press in February, has roots in her days as an undergraduate at Duke.When she was a sophomore, Canada started asking questions about the experiences of students who participate in college sports — especially the high-stakes, lucrative worlds of… read more about Strong Relationships Help Black College Football Players “Tackle the Everyday” »
A Deferential Diagnosis of Fatigue: A Performative Lecture by Rouzbeh Shadpey Tuesday March 4 // 5:30pm // Pink Parlor, East Duke Building Response by Nima Bassiri, Program in Literature A symptom of everything, fatigue defies the differential diagnosis and exhausts its logic. To draw the map of its possible etiologies is a task befitting the Borgesian cartographer, not the medical clinician.In this performative lecture, Rouzbeh Shadpey attempts to square the violent rationale of… read more about A Deferential Diagnosis of Fatigue »
Being Dead Otherwise (Duke University Press, 2023)Anne Allison was awarded the John Whitney Hall Prize from the Association of Asian Studies for the best English language book about Japan for 2025. The AAS is pleased to announce the winners of this year’s prize competitions and offer congratulations to all honorees. Please join us at the AAS 2025 Presidential Address and Awards Ceremony to recognize their work. The ceremony will take place on Friday, March 14, from 5:30 to 7:15pm, in the Aminah Robinson Grand Ballroom… read more about Anne Allison Awarded the John Whitney Hall Prize »
Seven Trinity College of Arts & Sciences faculty members have been awarded funding from the Undergraduate Program Enhancement Fund. Backed by Duke’s Provost’s Office, the fund supports innovative proposals that enhance undergraduate experiential learning.Owen Astrachan, Professor of the Practice of Computer Science, will design a course called AI, Algorithms, and APIs: Great Ideas of Computer Science (Redux). He envisions the course as an alternative introduction to the major, with the goal of making it the one course… read more about Seven Trinity Faculty Awarded Funding to Enhance Undergraduate Programs »
Cultural Anthropology presentsMatthew RareyUnsettled Maps: Cartography and Afro-Atlantic Religions in Brazil’s Long Eighteenth CenturyMonday, February 24, 20251:30pmFriedl Building, Room 225In this talk, Matthew Francis Rarey meditates on the consistent, yet largely unexplored, intersections between early modern colonial cartography and the development of Afro-Atlantic religious practices in Brazil’s long eighteenth century. Looking to an amulet used in Brazil in 1744; a map of a maroon community from 1763; a Brazilian… read more about Unsettled Maps: Cartography and Afro-Atlantic Religions in Brazil’s Long Eighteenth Century »
Duke professor works undercover with NC workers pushing for first Amazon unionization in SouthFor two years, Professor of Cultural Anthropology Orin Starn worked undercover as an Amazon warehouse worker — most recently at RDU1 in Garner, N.C. — conducting ethnographic research to “see what it was really like” to work at the company’s facilities.Now, after two and a half years of organizing, workers and pro-union advocates at the warehouse have launched unionization efforts to secure better pay and improved… read more about Duke professor works undercover with NC Amazon workers. »
Former cultural anthropology PhD, June Hee Kwon, won a major book award for her first book, Borderland Dreams. Dr. Kwon is an associate professor at Sacramento State. The Francis H.K. Hsu Book Award committee takes great pleasure in awarding this year’s prize to Dr. June Hee Kwon’s monograph Borderland Dreams: The Transnational Lives of Korean Chinese Workers (Duke University Press). Kwon’s book richly weaves the multidirectional, multilayered, multivocal stories of Korean Chinese… read more about Ph.D alumna June Hee Kwon wins major book award for her first book. »
"I am the writing on the wall, the whisper in the classroom...come with me" - Candyman"Horror films may be good to think with, but they point beyond thinking" - Diane Nelson In loving memory of Diane Nelson, the Department of Cultural Anthropology is screening one of her favorite horror films - CANDYMAN (1992) - on Halloween Night. Rubenstein Arts Center Film Theater 2020 Campus Drive 7pm. The projection is a digital transfer of Diane's personal VHS copy - see what Diane watched as she… read more about Film Screaming: In Memory of Diane Nelson »
In the notoriously anti-union U.S. South, a Volkswagen plant unionized. After months of striking, unionized Hollywood writers won better pay and protections. These headline-grabbing wins belong to lists of 4,187 union elections and 809 organized strikes over the past two years.With about 70 percent approval, unions enjoy near-record high public support among those surveyed in the U.S. It seems a new era of labor activism is underway. Read more. read more about Inside Amazon’s Union-Busting Tactics »
For the first time ever, this fall semester Duke’s Trinity College of Arts & Sciences will offer an Indigenous United States language — Cherokee. The new course recognizes the intertwined history of Duke University and American Indian education. From 1882 to 1887, Trinity College, then in Randolph County, ran the federally funded Cherokee Industrial Indian Boarding School, enrolling 20 children of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. The boarding school was closed in 1887, and Trinity moved to Durham a few years… read more about Duke to Offer New Cherokee Language Course Series »
Last month, scholars from across the United States, Haiti and Romania gathered on Duke’s campus to celebrate the career of Walter Mignolo, the William Hane Wannamaker Distinguished Professor of Romance Studies, Literature and Cultural Anthropology. During more than 30 years at Duke, Mignolo became a leading theorist of the connections between modernity and the colonial system. In over a dozen acclaimed books, including “The Darker Side of the Renaissance,” “Local Histories/Global Designs” and 2021’s “The Politics of… read more about Walter Mignolo Retires After 30 Years as Leading Theorist of Decoloniality »
In this interview, JHFC Spotlight sits down with Jieun Cho to explore what led her to continue at Duke University, delve into her current work, and discuss the joy she has found in the scenery around Durham. Tune in for an engaging discussion that offers a glimpse into her accomplishments. More here. read more about JHFC Spotlight: Jieun Cho, CulAnth PhD and APSI Postdoctoral Associate »