Duke Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

?How do we foster collaboration in a divided world? Duke faculty are exploring innovative ways to bridge gaps — through sociology, international youth camps and cultural partnerships in Durham.? https://lnkd.in/eaGbGDGX

Professor of Biology Sonke Johnsen’s path to becoming a Duke Biology professor was anything but conventional.?? ? From nearly failing his graduate exams to now leading a research lab, Johnsen’s path is a testament to resilience, adaptability, and shows how failure can lead to success.? He said, “I try to recruit people who have experience with failing and know how to deal with it, because in biology, we fail so often. Plan A and plan B never work. If you’re super lucky, plan C will work, but usually we’re using plan D.”

In a cozy West Campus classroom, students sit engrossed in lively conversations about family pets. Occasionally, a light hand clap or trill of soft laughter escapes, but the steady hum of the HVAC system remains the loudest sound in the room. Silently, instructor?Kraig Klingenberg brings the group activity to a close and seamlessly begins to introduce new vocabulary to the attentive undergrads in the latest language offering at Duke University: American Sign Language (ASL). https://lnkd.in/e-wFSp_7

Welcome to another one of our Trinity in 4 Acts students Tobias?Williams who is finding himself immersed in a new?world now that he's left his predominantly white high school in Minnesota behind. Williams was initially drawn primarily to Duke for its rigorous academics and track team, but the move to Durham from the Midwest also brought a benefit he wasn’t expecting.?“The diversity was the first thing I noticed,” he said. “As a Black man who grew up in a majority white suburb, it was a shock — in a good way – to see so many people who looked like me.”? Academically, Williams is majoring in?Economics?while minoring in?African & African American Studies. Outside the classroom,?Williams?is a member of the Duke track team. The?challenging?class schedule and daily practice keep him busy, but he's excited to compete at the collegiate level. He’s also eagerly anticipating basketball game days. From the stadium to the classroom, Williams remains focused on making the most of his Duke experience and embracing the opportunities that come with this new chapter. "There's so much to explore here," he said. "I can't wait to see what the rest of the year has in store." https://lnkd.in/eTSkXDeX

The?Triangle Undergraduate Literary Conference?was hosted by Duke University in February. All undergraduates who work in literature and its intersections were encouraged to participate. The conference held three sessions of student presentations and organized a writing workshop led by the Department of English's artist-in-residence Frances Leviston. TULC co-organizers Trisha Santanam, Tyler King and Arielle Stern said, "We are very excited that 16 students presented their research from all four schools we invited (Duke, UNC, NCCU and NC State). In the process of putting this conference together, we were continually thrilled to see so many people rally around the study of literature and undergraduate research. "We conceived of this conference because we were hoping to foster and find a community of people interested in literary studies at Duke. We soon realized we could extend this community to other schools in the area. When reading the submitted abstracts, we were taken by the diversity of interests within the field and students' unique ideas. We hope that this interest in and support for undergraduate literary research will continue in future years!" University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill North Carolina Central University North Carolina State University

Zakiyyah Iman Jackson, associate professor of Literature, recently delivered a prestigious Langford Lecture on Blackness and the frontiers of thought and being. Speaking about her critically acclaimed book, “Becoming Human: Matter and Meaning in an Antiblack World," Jackson argued that "these literary and visual artistic practices expand our critique of the animalization of Blackness.” Jackson said, "Ultimately, ‘Becoming Human’ reveals the pernicious peculiarity of reigning foundational conceptions of ‘human.’ ... What emerges from this question is a generative, unruly sense of being, knowing and feeling existence - generative precisely because it is unruly.”

Last Thursday Trinity won the Dean’s Challenge for Duke Women's basketball!?Trinity faculty and staff love our WBB team ?? ??

Duke research saves lives. Now, we must save research. National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding fuels innovation, the economy, and life-saving discoveries. Cuts could have major impacts on our community. Here's what we know... Duke University Health System | Duke University School of Medicine

As a Kafka scholar, Kata Gellen knows a thing or two about failure—but one of her hardest lessons came from a rejection of her own. A devastating setback turned into an opportunity to strengthen her work, now, she sees failure as a necessary part of growth. “When you fail, it's so easy to let it spiral into this judgment about you and your work and your value as a human. Sometimes we need to step back and recognize there are things beyond our control." Learn what Gellen has to say about recognizing what’s beyond our control.? https://lnkd.in/dJqDG8S4

Three Trinity graduate researchers were invited to participate in an eight-week long Stuart Hall Archive fellowship by the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute, in collaboration with the?Stuart Hall Archive Project (SHAP)?at the University of Birmingham, UK. As fellows, the graduate students worked on projects to make the archive of Stuart Hall's work more accessible to a wider audience. They also produced academic work, such as journal articles and theses, based on their research into specific aspects of the archive, such as media holdings, campaigns, or Hall’s contributions to public policy. Stuart Hall was, among many other storied things, an ardent media theorist. Throughout his career, the Jamaican-British academic was keenly aware of the subtexts amplified by mass media about race, class, gender, and more. Hall’s transformational work ushered in a new field in cultural studies, building a framework for researchers to contend with political and cultural debates still relevant today. The inaugural fellows walked away from the experience inspired by Hall’s knowledge and eager to implement what they learned into their own fields. Read more about these students and their experience. https://lnkd.in/eXjix3-B John Hope Franklin Center