This week's episodes of Novel Dialogue features novelist Caryl Phillips and critic Corina Stan, Associate Professor of English at Duke University. read more about Stitching the Past to the Present: Caryl Phillips speaks with Corina Stan (JP) »
Moderated by Dr. Ranjana Khanna, professor and director of the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute here at Duke, the panel discussion “What Can the Humanities Contribute to the Global Energy Transition?” explored the potential of humanities fields to help supplement perspectives offered by the sciences, teaching us about new ways of living for a greener world. read more about Will the Humanities Save the World? »
Professor Sussman's "Peopling the World" is amongst the list of global perspectives books by Duke-authors. read more about 11 Duke-Authored Books On Global Perspectives »
Professor Akhil Sharma's novel Family Life is amongst the books included in The Chronicle of Higher Education interactive database of books selected as incoming first-year student readings over the past four academic years (2017-21). CUNY Baruch College selected Professor Sharma's Family Life for their incoming 2019-20 freshman class to read. The recent Chronicle of Higher Education article "These Are the Books… read more about "These Are the Books That Colleges Think Every Freshman Should Read" Includes Professor Sharma's "Family Life" »
In a recent Oxford University Press blog post, Professor Thomas J. Ferraro explores the unaddressed figuration of Catholicism in the Cather, Fitzgerald, and Hemingway novels. read more about Where Have You Gone, Jimmy Gatz? Roman Catholic Haunting In American Literary Modernism »
Professor Stan wrote a short op-ed for the Los Angeles Times about the value of reading literature during the pandemic. read more about Connecting with Kafka During Our Pandemic Isolation »
Toward the end of a conversation between Jacques Derrida and Ornette Coleman in 1997, the philosopher and the musician compare their experiences of estrangement from a “language of origin.” Coleman introduces the term to explain that, as a Black man from Fort Worth, Tex., whose first ancestors in America were slaves, he never knew the language his people originally spoke. Derrida offers in response that, as a son of French-speaking Algerian Jews, he maintains no connection to the language of his own ancestors. Both men now… read more about The Melody of Time: Nathaniel Mackey’s Double Trio. »
Working@Duke asked Duke staff and faculty to share books that send them to a new destination. Professor Tsitsi Ella Jaji shared two literary works that she will be reading this summer, “Cinéma” by the Guinean writer Tierno Monénembo and “Deluge” by Leila Chatt, a Tunisian-American poet. read more about Books That Will Take You Away This Summer »
This month's Duke Today collection of Duke-authored books that explore historical and current aspects of music in the United States and beyond includes books by English Professors Mark Anthony Neal and Tsitsi Ella Jaji. read more about 10 Books About Music From Duke Authors »
Professor Priscilla Wald wrote an article for Public Books, an online magazine of ideas, arts, and scholarship, that examines how the humanities can reveal the truth of the world’s crises from contagions like the COVID-19 pandemic to the historical roots of social inequities. read more about What Happens When a Metaphor Becomes Real? »
I dream of dog death. Every night for weeks sometimes. It comes in spells, dog dreams and then nothing. Back when I was a kid, my uncle Chris bred bullies and boxers. He fed stray mutts too and kept a blind teacup poodle that was forever falling off the front porch. The one that bit me was a chow mix. Bit me square in the ass. read more about Prof. Maren's Short Story Published in "JoyLand" »
![Melissa Malouf loved this photo "because the student is so engaged despite [her] costume and his mouthful of food." Courtesy of Melissa Malouf](/sites/english.duke.edu/files/styles/landscape_small/public/images/2f3f1344-700c-4f7a-b1ff-7cb077b1bf74.sized-1000x1000.jpeg?h=707772c7&itok=xbjYPU5Z)
Taylor Plett writes about Professor Melissa Malouf's career with the Duke English Department in this recent Duke Chronicle article. read more about From our obsessions: The story of Melissa Malouf, the diviner on Monmouth Avenue »
The Office of the Provost has selected 17 projects for funding through the Duke Endowment to study “Reckoning with Race, Racism and the History of the American South.” All research projects will be led by Duke faculty members; some projects include staff, students and community members. read more about New Faculty Research to Explore Race in the South from Diverse Angles »
On Tuesday, March 29, Professor Derrick Spires of Cornell University visited the English Department as a guest of the Ad Hoc Committee on Anti-Racism. Professor Spires visited virtually with a group of English Ph.D. candidates to discuss their work and offer advice. Following his meeting with the graduate students, Professor Spires and Professor Jarvis McInnis, Cordelia and William Laverack Family Assistant Professor of English at Duke University, had a virtual conversation via Zoom centered around Spires’ book… read more about Professor Derrick Spires’ Visit with Duke English »
Oftentimes, in my classes, you can hardly distinguish a current syllabus from one of years past. My teachers usually follow a fixed curriculum, a tried-and-true set of lesson plans, course readings, and homework assignments. But for Professor of English Thomas Pfau, PhD, that’s not the case at all. Even after thirty years at Duke, Pfau still searches for novel subjects to teach. “There are not many classes I repeat,” says Pfau. “I tend to always be prowling out for new materials and configuring new books.” This… read more about Designed for Digital: English 101, 2021 Edition »
When I was younger, I always fantasized about heading up North. I wanted to leave my hometown in Mississippi behind, and say farewell to the magnolia trees, to the humid summers and SEC football. The North was where culture was, and in my mind, it was where writers went. I had a particular fascination with New York. I associated the city with writing workshops, like Sackett Street or Gotham Writers. I was drawn to the intimacy of those spaces, and their dynamism, too—places where my… read more about English 322: An Exercise in Writing and Self-Kindness »
17-year-old Amin Ahmad might’ve been surprised by the trajectory of his life, three decades later. “It’s very strange where my life has taken me,” Ahmad says. “I didn’t expect to be in North Carolina—and I certainly didn’t expect to be teaching writing!” Last fall, Ahmad joined Duke’s faculty as a professor of English. While he’s new to Duke, Ahmad is no stranger to crafting an engaging story. In addition to his critically acclaimed novels, Ahmad’s work has appeared in a litany of… read more about Writing Across Borders and Genres: Amin Ahmad Brings Scaffolding to Creative Writing Faculty »
Listening to music with the poet whose alternative history of humankind intersects with the realities of Black life in America. read more about Nathaniel Mackey's Long Song »
George Saunders, the celebrated fiction writer, was doing quite well writing short stories – winning prizes, earning acclaim, making a living. Yet novels remained elusive. “It’s like being a builder of custom yurts and then someone asks you to build a mansion. You say, ‘No, I don’t do that,’” Saunders said. “But wait a minute, maybe I could just put a bunch of those little yurts together.” read more about Critics and Authors Talk Literature In Novel Dialogue Podcast from Duke English »
Professor Sarah Beckwith, Katherine Everett Gilbert Distinguished Professor of English, gave a Work-in-Progress presentation on February 26th featuring her paper “Tragic Implications.” A copy of “Tragic Implications” was shared with members of the audience in advance of her talk. Beckwith composed this piece for a symposium held in Boston, MA in 2019 to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Stanley Cavell’s essay collection “Must We… read more about Professor Sarah Beckwith’s Work-in-Progress Talk »
ABC 11 WTVD reporter Ed Crump recently interviewed Duke English Professor Dominika Baran, a sociolinguist, to discuss “How our daily language has changed during the COVID-19 pandemic.” read more about New Normal, Flatten the Curve, Quarantine: How Our Daily Language Has Changed During the COVID-19 Pandemic »
Professor Caryl Phillips, English Professor at Yale University, returned to Duke from February 16 to 24 for his second year as the Blackburn Writer-in-Residence as part of the English Department's Blackburn Reading Series. Every year the department invites a major, active fiction writer for a reading and a series of workshops that allow its creative writing students to interact with a noted, contemporary author. When asked for remarks about returning as the Blackburn Writer-in-Residence this year, especially… read more about Caryl Phillips’ 2021 Virtual Blackburn Writer-in-Residence Visit »
Professor Aarthi Vadde will welcome esteemed writers like Teju Cole (author of Open City), Orhan Pamuk (winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature), and George Saunders (author of Lincoln in the Bardo) to her new podcast “Novel Dialogue,” which premieres today. Each episode pairs a novelist and a critic for lively, fun, and sophisticated dialogues about the art of novel writing. Vadde will serve as a co-host on the show alongside John Plotz, the Barbara Mandel Professor of the Humanities… read more about Professor Aarthi Vadde Debuts New Podcast “Novel Dialogue” »
“America’s Best Employers 2021” list by Forbes, Duke University placed 23rd out of 500 employers with more than 5,000 employees in the annual ranking. read more about Duke Named a ‘Best Employer’ by Forbes for 2021 »
Duke English began the Spring 2021 semester by welcoming 30+ attendees to the first session of the Faculty Works-in-Progress Series on Friday, January 22nd. Professor Joseph Winters presented his forthcoming article "Recovering the Irrecoverable: Blackness, Melancholy, and the Duplicities that Bind," which will be a part of the "Slave Religion: Histories and Horizons" special issue of the journal Religions. Winters opened the session with an overiew of his previous… read more about Professor Winters' Faculty Works-in-Progress Series Session »
Duke Alum Sid Richardson's CD Borne by a Wind will be released on February 12, 2021 on New Focus Recordings. Richardson's CD features Professor Nathaniel Mackey and performances by Deviant Septet, pianist Conrad Tao, violinist Lilit Hartunian, and Da Capo Chamber Players. read more about Professor Nathaniel Mackey Featured on Duke Alum Sid Richardson's New CD »
Guardian's article, "Drexciya: how Afrofuturism is inspiring calls for an ocean memorial to slavery," features Professor Charlotte Sussman and Duke Bass Connections Project "Remembering the Middle Passage" work to memorialize the Middle Passage. read more about “Seascape: the state of our oceans - Drexciya: How Afrofuturism Is inspiring Calls for an Ocean Memorial to Slavery” »
On occasion, Duke faculty put their research on pause and and turn to writing fiction in a variety of genres. We feature 10 recent novels and short stories from authors across the university. PLUS: See a roundup of January publications from Duke authors on the DUKE TODAY BOOKS PAGE. read more about 10 Works of Fiction from Duke Authors »
The first spring 2021 installment of the Duke English Faculty Works-in-Progress series will take place on Zoom this Friday, January 22, at 1:15 p.m. Professor Joseph Winters will discuss "Recovering the Irrecoverable: Blackness, Melancholy, and the Duplicities that Bind,” an article he is working on for an upcoming special issue of the journal Religion. Religion is an international, interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed, open-access journal on religions and theology from Multidisciplinary… read more about January 22: Joseph Winters on Blackness and Melancholy »
Professor Faulkner Fox wrote a piece for Duke Medium about what it was like to be working in Georgia when she found out the Capitol was being attacked. read more about A Blue Georgia on My Mind »