In email messages sent to Duke faculty, staff and students Tuesday, President Vincent Price invited them to a series of online Leadership Conversations with to address concerns about the new semester. read more about Price Invites Duke Community to Leadership Conversations January 25-27 »
In spring 2015, Francisco Ramos was a postdoc at the University of Pennsylvania, teaching a course on advanced qualitative methods. During class one Tuesday that April, he noticed that discourse analysis and phenomenology seemed to be the last thing on his students’ minds. What occupied their thoughts instead was Freddie Gray, a young Black man in Baltimore who had died two days earlier from injuries he suffered while in police custody. read more about Graduate School Assistant Dean Writes Guidebook on Teaching Contentious Issues »
To curate best practices for remote and hybrid instruction, Learning Innovation facilitated a discussion called Sharing What Works: One Good Idea from Fall 2020 Courses. During the discussion, we invited faculty to share successful teaching strategies from the Fall 2020 semester. We also administered a survey to Duke instructors to probe effective methods for flexible teaching. After synthesizing our findings from the discussion and survey, here’s what we learned: read more about Faculty Share Their Best Ideas for Hybrid and Remote Teaching »
A most unusual and painful year also brought us moments of joy and solidarity. We revisit some of the highlights in photos and videos. read more about 20 Moments From 2020 »
2020 has been a year unlike any other in our lifetimes. This article will reflect how Duke English addressed the challenges and opportunities presented by this historic year. Learning at Duke spread far beyond East and West campuses, for all of us. Faculty and students learned to take advantage of Duke resources beyond the classroom and Duke campus. With our students dispersed worldwide during the pandemic, the Duke English experience expanded well beyond Durham with Zoom becoming a primary resource for… read more about Duke English:2020 in Review »
Rebecca Brouwer had big plans for 2020. She was ready to get started with the Duke Leadership Academy and take on some work projects in Duke’s Office of Research Initiatives, where she is director of research initiatives. She was also planning trips to Hawaii, California and Indonesia. read more about How to Make a Fresh Start in 2021 »
The Great Gatsby entered the public domain. Works from 1925—including movies by Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton, recordings by Ma Rainey, songs such as "Sweet Georgia Brown" and major works of literature—are now available for artists to legally build upon. What's not available: works from 1964 that would have entered the public domain under older U.S. law. read more about January 1, 2021 is Public Domain Day: Works from 1925 are open to all! »
“We wanted a senior year for the record books, and we got it! … Just not for the reason we expected. COVID-19 threw a curve ball at us, but we’ve made it our mission to find happiness in different places.” read more about COVID-19 Threw a Curve Ball at US': Student Photo Essays Document Life During a Pandemic »
Joseph Donahue, professor of the practice of English, in a poem from his new collection, "The Disappearance of Fate," described in a Hyperallergic review as capturing the experience of wonder. read more about Poems of Spiritual Quest and Musical Yearning »
The Trinity College of Arts and Sciences has loosened restrictions on satisfactory/unsatisfactory grading for the spring—though the overall policy will remain similar to the fall—and released the list of classes with mandatory S/U grading. read more about Trinity Loosens Limits on S/U Grading for Spring 2021, Releases List of Mandatory S/U Classes »
The start of the COVID-19 pandemic kicked off a race to develop and deploy safe and effective vaccines. How do vaccines work to protect our health? With help from the Duke Human Vaccine Institute (DHVI), here's a short course on how they are developed. The investigators at the DHVI conduct basic and translational research to develop novel vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics for diseases such as HIV-1, tuberculosis, influenza, syphilis, gonorrhea, cytomegalovirus, rotavirus, parainfluenza, zika flavivirus, plague,… read more about Quick Learner: How Vaccines Work »
Duke nurse Glenda “Faye” Tate Williams became the first recipient of the COVID-19 vaccine at Duke Hospital Monday. A dozen Duke Health employees received doses after nearly 3,000 vaccine vials were delivered to the Duke Health System. Plus: READ THE FIVE THINGS you should know about the vaccine at Duke. read more about An Amazing Day »
How to use “close reading” of a text, an object, or an idea to focus your students’ attention in class. read more about Advice: Distracted Minds: Why You Should Teach Like a Poet »
A new survey of college presidents' fall semester outcomes and spring semester predictions found continuing worries about student and staff mental health and institutional finances. read more about Next Semester, Same Worries »
Even well into your career, you may still be figuring out a productive writing practice. read more about How to Find a Writing Routine That Works »
Duke received a record number of Early Decision applications and expects a record-low acceptance rate this year. Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Christoph Guttentag wrote in an email that Duke received 5,040 Early Decision applications to the Class of 2025, compared to 4,280 last year—a 17.76% increase. read more about Duke Sees Record Early Decision Applications, Expects Lower Admit Rate »
DURHAM, N.C. – With multiple COVID-19 vaccines on the way in the United States, public health officials now face the daunting challenge of convincing skeptics to actually get the vaccine. Three Duke experts in public health messaging, leadership and human behavior spoke with journalists Thursday in a virtual media briefing about challenges and solutions. Replay the briefing on YouTube. read more about To Convince Vaccine Skeptics, Use Empathy, Information and a Re-Start Experts Say »
In this pandemic, you've heard a lot about what you can't do. Four Duke Health physicians and health workers offer advice on what you can do this holiday to be social and lessen stress but still significantly reduce your COVID risk. read more about How to Safely Enjoy the Holidays During COVID-19 »
Breakout rooms: love them or hate them? Many professors use them to spark conversation and group work in online classes. But students often find them painfully awkward. read more about Teaching: How to Make Breakout Rooms Work Better »
Strengthening your ability to weather adversity often involves others read more about Build Your Resilience by Helping Others »
Recovery from the recession depends on education and training programs. These proposals would expand their impact. read more about 7 Ways the Biden-Harris Administration Could Help Colleges Lift People's Economic Prospects »
Amy Gleason, assistant university registrar for compliance and reporting, likely uses DukeHub as much as anyone on campus. Nearly every day, she’ll dive into the university’s online resource for managing student data, to verify academic progress of student athletes, report academic and tuition information to agencies providing students with military benefits, and help the handful of students she advises chart their course through Duke. read more about DukeHub 2.0 Makes Managing Student Information Easier »
Mark Anthony Neal was waiting for his order at a restaurant one afternoon in 2011 when a man he didn’t know approached him. “He said, ‘I just saw you on TV talking to Cornel West. That was so cool,’” recalled Neal, the James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of African and African American Studies. read more about 300 Episodes Later, ‘Left of Back’ Celebrates 10 Years »
Goals can differ in some fundamental ways, as can our reactions when we achieve them or fail to achieve them. In this video Duke Psychology Professor Angie Vieth dives into the effects our #goals can have on our #emotions. This video is a part of Duke's series Extra Credit: Life's Curiosities Explained Playlist ► http://duke.is/HDM1C3 read more about How Goals Affect Our Emotions »
Students, professors and administrators need a deeper understanding of how human disparities have developed, why they persist and how they evolve over time, write William A. Darity Jr., Malachi Hacohen and Adam Hollowell. read more about The Importance of Inequality Studies »
On Friday, Duke presented initial plans for vaccine distribution in expectation of FDA approval later in December. The limited initial dosages will be reserved for employees in clinical and research areas where exposure to COVID is most likely. It's expected that most employees won't be vaccinated until later in 2021, and standard safety measures, such as mask-wearing and physical distancing, will still be necessary on campus. read more about COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Information for the Duke Community »
When colleges shifted operations online in the spring because of Covid-19, so much remained in question. How did the new coronavirus spread? What were its ill effects? Could colleges open for in-person instruction in the 2020-21 academic year, and what would happen if they did? As the fall term comes to a close, we now have some hard-earned answers. These five lessons may shape institutions’ responses both to the coming spring semester and to pandemics and other public-health threats in the future. read more about The 5 Biggest Lessons We’ve Learned About How Coronavirus Spreads on Campus »
Testing strategies against Covid-19 aren’t the only measure, but they’re most important read more about Vaccine Institute’s Denny Co-Authors ‘How to’ Manual for College Campues »
Desperate times call for big changes. Here’s what professors and administrators should do to fix a broken graduate system. read more about 10 Steps to Reform Graduate Education in the Humanities »
A large survey of students who lived on or near campus among peers during the fall semester showed that they had positive learning and social experiences, even if all of their classes were online. read more about Did Students in College Housing Learn Better? »