Like other universities across the country, Duke is closely monitoring the spread of the H1N1 flu virus. Since this is a rapidly evolving situation, we encourage you to check the University’s flu information site for news about the flu outbreak, tips for avoiding the flu, and what to do if you become ill.

2009-2010 Academic Career Series

The Graduate School, Career Center, and Office of Postdoctoral Services will host an academic job search series in 103 Bryan Research Building from noon to 1:30 p.m. on several Thursdays this semester. The series starts on September 10. Watch the University events calendar for more information.

2009 Reception for Faculty and Graduate Students of Color

Wednesday, September 23
4:00-6:00 p.m.
Graduate School–Courtyard
(behind the house at 2127 Campus Drive)
The Office of Graduate Student Affairs cordially invites you to join us for reception that will give faculty and graduate students of color a chance to get acquainted with one another and with members of the broader Duke community. Please RSVP to J. Alan Kendrick by Wednesday, September 9, 2009.

Teaching IDEAS Workshop Series

The Graduate School’s annual Teaching IDEAS workshop series is open to any Duke faculty, staff, postdocs, or Ph.D. students. Pre-registration is required.

 LifeDesign

James B Duke Professor of Behavioral Economics Dan Ariely, the New York Times best-selling author of Predictably Irrational, is starting a graduate student group called LifeDesign. This is an incredible opportunity to work with a world-class expert on improving how people approach everyday choices. He seeks 10-15 people to build this group. Graduate students from all departments are welcome to apply. Please contact Betsy Holmberg by September 9 if you are interested in becoming part of LifeDesign.

2nd Annual Office of Licensing & Ventures (OLV) Day

Tuesday, September 22, 1:15–4:30 p.m. (followed by a reception from 4:30-6:00 p.m.) OLV day is an annual event hosted by the Duke Office of Licensing & Ventures. This year we start by showcasing the role of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in innovation at Duke and then shift to a discussion of the challenges to university technology commercialization and strategies for redefining university interactions with industry. For more details, see the attached visit the OLV Day site. The event is free but for reception planning purposes please register.

October 5 Fulbright-Hays Fellowship Deadline

The campus deadline for the 2009 Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship Competition is 3:00 p.m. on Monday, October 5, 2009. This fellowship program provides grants to colleges and universities to fund individual doctoral students who conduct modern foreign languages and area studies research in other countries. Please contact Nancy Hare Robbins if you are interested in applying.

Gender, Race and Visual Culture Series

In line with its annual theme, the Department of Women’s Studies is hosting several events this semester. For information about visiting scholars and speakers, see the Women’s Studies events page.

Kenan Institute Part-Time Communications Assistant Opening

The Kenan Institute for Ethics is looking for part-time student help during the academic year. The position will report to the Communications & Advancement Specialist. Interested applicants should e-mail a letter of interest, resume, available dates/hours, and up to three references to aimee.rodriguez@duke.edu.

Research Assistants Needed

Jedediah Purdy, Professor of Law, is looking for research assistants to help with two projects. One is an investigation of the ideas and attitudes behind skepticism of climate change. The other project involves the intersection of the science and policy of sustainable agriculture. If interested, please contact Sheilah Villalobos.

Duke Press Call for Interns

The Duke University Press books acquisitions editorial department is looking for interns to work as little as 5 hours per week or as much as 40 hours per week. To apply, send your CV and resume and cover letter to Mandy Earley, Editorial Associate and Internship Coordinator at Duke University Press. No phone calls, please.

DukeList

If the three opportunities above don’t meet your employment or research opportunity desires (or if you are looking to post a campus employment opportunity) your first stop should be DukeList. Also note that the Duke online Trading Post recently has been incorporated into DukeList as well.

Carlos Carvalho (Statistical Science, Ph.D. ’06), currently Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, has been awarded a Donald D. Harrington Fellowship from the University of Texas at Austin.

Dan Dillon (Psychology & Neuroscience, Ph.D. ’06) is a postdoctoral fellow in the Affective Neuroscience Laboratory at Harvard University, working with Dr. Diego Pizzagalli. This spring he received a Young Investigator Award from the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD). This two-year award will fund a project entitled “Toward a Functional Dissection of Anhedonia in Major Depression: Dissociating Decision-Making Deficits from Reward Insensitivity.”

Kevin J. Edgar (Chemistry, Ph.D. ’79) will be among the first class of American Chemical Society (ACS) Fellows honored at the 238th ACS national meeting in Washington D.C., August 16–20. ACS is the world’s largest scientific society and is dedicated to the advancement of the chemical enterprise and career development across all fields of chemistry.

Daniel L. Hendricks (Religion, Ph.D. ’77) an accomplished, 25-year fundraising professional and administrator in higher education and other not-for-profit settings has been appointed Vice Chancellor for Advancement at Purdue University Calumet.

Steve Ilardi (Psychology & Neuroscience, Ph.D. ’95) recently completed The Depression Cure: The Six-Step Program to Beat Depression Without Drugs. The book details his lifestyle-based approach to addressing depressive illness.

Michael Kane (Cognitive Psychology, Ph.D. ’95) was recently elected a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science (APS).

Al Mannes (Business Administration, Ph.D. ’09) has published his paper “Are We Wise About the Wisdom of Crowds? The Use of Group Judgments in Belief Revision.” as the lead article in August 2009 issue of Management Science. He is currently a postdoc in the Department of Social and Decision Sciences at Carnegie-Mellon University.

Michael S. Mayer (History, M.A. ’75) has written Presidential Profiles: The Eisenhower Years, published by Facts on File. He is a professor of history at the University of Montana.

Elana Newman (Clinical Health Psychology, Ph.D. ’93) has been appointed as the McFarlin Endowed Chair in Psychology at the University of Tulsa.

Jared Niemi (Statistical Science, Ph.D. ’09) won a 2009 Student Paper Competition run by the American Statistical Association’s Section on Bayesian Statistical Science (SBSS). Jarad presented his winning paper, entitled “Adaptive Mixture Modelling Metropolis Methods for Bayesian Analysis of Non-Linear State-Space Models,” co-authored with advisor Prof Mike West, at the Joint Statistical Meetings in Washington DC in early August. Jared is now an Assistant Professor of Statistics and Applied Probability at University of California–Santa Barbara.

C. Kavin Rowe (Religion, Ph.D. ’05), Assistant Professor of New Testament at Duke University Divinity School was awarded the John Templeton Prize for Theological Promise by the Templeton Foundation. Rowe was one of 12 scholars worldwide to receive this award.

Carl Schimmel (Composition, Ph.D. ’08) was in residency over the summer at the artists’ colony, Yaddo, in Saratoga Springs, NY, composing a work for Due East, a flute and percussion duo, as well as a work for the Netherlands-based sax and clarinet duo Henri Bok and Ann Evans. For the academic year, he was a visiting lecturer at Grinnell College in Iowa, where he taught composition.

October Sessions (Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Ph.D. ’09)and collaborators in the lab of Mariano Garcia Blanco used genetic silencing to identify dozens of proteins the dengue fever virus depends upon to grow and spread among mosquitoes and humans. October’s Ph.D. dissertation research, which appeared in Nature, opens the door to new ways to potentially prevent or treat the disease, which infects millions of people around the globe. October will be doing a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Dr. Eng Eong Ooi at the Program in Emerging Infectious Diseases in the Duke-National University of Singapore Graduate Medical School.

Rebecca Thurston (Clinical Health Psychology, Ph.D. ’03) is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh. She holds a Patient-Oriented Mentored Career Development Award (K23) from the National Institutes of Health. She is also the recipient of the New Investigator Award from the American Federation for Aging Research and the New Investigator and Vasomotor Symptoms Research Awards from the North American Menopause Society.

Meagan Green (seventh-year doctoral student) was the recipient of the 2009-2010 Fulbright Institute of International Education Research Grant–Italy for her on-site and archival research in Verona, Italy. She will be using this fellowship to complete her dissertation, “Friars in the City: Mendicant Architecture and Pious Practices in Medieval Verona (c. 1220-c. 1375).”

Neil McWilliam (Walter H. Annenberg Professor in the Department of Art, Art History & Visual Studies) was awarded funding of $50,000 through the Provost’s annual Common Fund competition to support the interdisciplinary project, Lines of Attack: Conflicts in Caricature. The project will feature an exhibition of contemporary and historical graphic satire at the Nasher Museum of Art in Spring 2010; the exhibition was developed by undergraduate seniors and graduate students at Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill.

Business Administration

Will Mitchell (J. Rex Fuqua Professor of International Management) received the Irwin Outstanding Educator Award from the Business Policy and Strategy Division of the Academy of Management, a career award for contributions to Ph.D. education and junior faculty development.

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Krishnendu Chakrabarty (Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering) has been appointed editor-in-chief of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE) Design & Test of Computers journal for the 2010-2011 term.

Chris Dwyer and Adrienne Stiff-Roberts (Assistant Professors of Electrical and Computer Engineering) each received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor given to scientists by the U.S. Government. These awards are intended to recognize young investigators and support them in the early stages of their independent research careers.

Mark Andrew Ewing (third-year doctoral student) was awarded first prize and $15,000 in the National Academy of Engineering’s Grand Challenges for Engineering video and essay contest in March 2009. Andy’s graduate advisor is April Brown, John Cocke Professor and Senior Associate Dean for Research in the Pratt School of Engineering.

Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science

Brian Mann (Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering in Materials Science) has developed a theory framework that enables broadband energy harvesting with inertial generators. These devices convert environmental disturbances into mechanical oscillations and then apply transduction methods to convert the vibratory energy into usable electrical energy.

Sam Stanton (third-year doctoral student) has developed a piezoelectric inertial generator that is capable of broadband energy harvesting. His broadband harvester could be used as a remote power source that would replace batteries in many applications.

Molecular Genetics and Microbiology

Jen-Tsan Ashley Chi (Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology) was selected as a 2009 Burroughs Wellcome Fund Investigator in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Diseases for his research on the role of human microRNAs in malaria. Dr. Chi also received a grant for this research from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Music

Chia-Yu Hsu (seventh-year doctoral student in Composition) received the Stern Dissertation Fellowship for work on her Ph.D. thesis, entitled Fan Jing (Folk Images) for orchestra. One portion, Feng Nian Ji (Harvest Festival) was featured at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music on August 10, under the direction of Marin Alsop. Chia-Yu has also received an artist residency this summer at the Banff Centre for the Arts. Her piece, Hard Roads in Shu, was performed by the Charlotte Civic Orchestra in May as the first prize winner of the Charlotte Civic Orchestra Composer Competition.

Jennifer Woodruff (eighth-year doctoral student in Musicology) was named a Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellow. The Newcombe Fellowship, a highly competitive national award, is given by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation to support 12 months of work on a dissertation in the humanities or social sciences that addresses questions of religious or ethical value. Jenny’s dissertation title is “Learning to Listen, Learning to Be: African-American Girls and Hip Hop in Durham, NC.”

John Supko (Assistant Professor of Composition) will be joining the Music Department beginning Fall 2009. He comes to us after completing his Ph.D. at Princeton University.

Psychology and Neuroscience

Crystal Reeck (second-year doctoral student) has received a graduate fellowship award from the National Science Foundation. In the laboratory of Kevin LaBar, she is studying inhibitory control processes in emotional memory.

Katie Flanagan (third-year doctoral student) will receive the 2009 Hollingworth Award from the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) at an annual awards ceremony in November as part of NAGC’s 56th Annual Convention in in St. Louis, Missouri.

Ashley Allen (fourth-year doctoral student) has been awarded a National Research Service Award, a two-year fellowship from the National Institute on Aging for her study, “Self-compassion and Well-being in the Elderly.”

Religion

Christine Luckritz Marquis (fifth-year doctoral student) won one of Duke’s Julian Price Fellowships for dissertation research and writing. Her proposed dissertation title is “Haunted Paradise: Remembering and Forgetting Among Ascetics of the Egyptian Desert.”

Eric Meyers (Bernice and Norton Lerner Professor of Judaic Studies and Director of the Center for Jewish Studies) was honored by the by the Upper Galilee Regional Council with a lifetime achievement award for his forty years of archeological research in Galilee. He is editor of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East, and co-author of the Cambridge Companion to the Bible.

Kyle Smith (sixth-year doctoral student) received a Dolores Liebmann Fellowship for dissertation research and writing. His dissertation is entitled “The Persian Persecution: Politics, Martyrdom, and Religious Identity in Late Ancient Syriac Christianity.”

Statistical Science

Jerry Reiter (Associate Professor of Statistical Science) and Ph.D. alumnus Saki Kinney created the first-ever public use file of U. S. business establishment data using Bayesian simulation techniques. Created with support from the National Science Foundation and the Bureau of the Census, the file provides researchers and policy analysts all over the world with unfettered access to U. S. business data, enabling investigations of, for example, job creation and destruction, patterns in annual payroll by industry sector, and trends in establishment life times.

Certificate in Teaching College Biology

Julie Reynolds is the new director of the Certificate in Teaching College Biology program. As a member of the biology faculty, Julie has established an active research program focused on effective pedagogies that promote science literacy. She was also chosen to participate in the American Society for Microbiology’s 2009 Biology Scholars Research Residency Program and was recently elected to be chair of the Ecological Society of America’s education section.

Certificate in Women’s Studies

Madhumita Lahiri (sixth-year doctoral student, English) and Netta VanVliet (eighth-year doctoral student, Cultural Anthropology) are the recipients of the 2009–2010 Dissertation Fellowships in Women’s Studies.

Fiona Barnett (seventh-year doctoral student, Literature) and China Medel (third-year doctoral student, Literature) have been chosen to lead this year’s Graduate Scholars Colloquium: interdisciplinary scholars.

As part of Fall Orientation activities, the Graduate School and School of Medicine hosted three separate events for nearly 500 entering Ph.D. students in nearly 50 departments and programs on the subjects of academic integrity and research ethics. Nearly 250 doctoral students in the Natural Sciences and Engineering and 145 students in the Humanities and Social Sciences participated in two RCR Orientation events. A weekend retreat, known as the “Beaufort Retreat,” also was held at Duke Marine Lab for almost 115 entering Ph.D. students in the Basic Medical Sciences. Dan Vallero, leader of the Ethics across the Curriculum Program in the Pratt School of Engineering and a major RCR contributor, notes, “Good ethics is simply good research.”

The campus-based RCR Orientation events were coordinated by Doug James, assistant dean for academic affairs, and featured a host of Duke faculty and staff who led engaging presentations and honest discussions with graduate students about the need for integrity in all aspects of research. Topics included the development of research questions, protections for human subjects, animal care and use, academic integrity in the classroom, responsible research in the digital age, and building an inclusive environment at Duke. David Resnik, bioethicist and Institutional Review Board Chair at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) in Research Triangle Park, offered a keynote address on “Responsible Conduct in Research: A Global Concern.” Each day, members of a faculty panel offered anecdotes to demonstrate how questionable research practices can become a challenge in data collection, authorship, or other aspects of conducting research.

The “Beaufort Retreat” was originally developed in 1996 by Jo Rae Wright, now dean of the Graduate School, with assistance from the Graduate School and the Kenan Institute for Ethics. In August 2009, the RCR Retreat was coordinated by a faculty team led by Robert Wechsler-Reya, associate professor of pharmacology and cancer biology, and David Sherwood, assistant professor of biology, with the support of Dona Chikaraishi, associate professor of neurobiology. This retreat not only serves to introduce serious content in a relaxed atmosphere, but also provides an informal setting in which entering students can meet and talk with nearly 30 faculty and advanced graduate students who serve as TAs for the retreat. Ross McKinney, Jr., Director of Duke’s Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities, and History of Medicine, offered an address on “Why Do We Bother with Research Ethics Training?” Other faculty spoke about authorship and allocation of credit, digital image manipulation, conflict of interest, and the professional obligations of a scientist.

Overall, graduate student feedback has been positive regarding RCR training. In an exit survey, one graduating student commented, “It was helpful to have this training alongside our program. The further I went into my research, the more relevant some of the topics became.” Anne Marie Rasmussen, associate professor of Germanic languages and literature, noted, “The RCR exercise is a great idea. It assumes that graduate students are emerging scholars, not just ’students’—and that is a very empowering stance.”

Contributors: Douglas James, Anne Marie Rasmussen, and Dan Vallero

Assistants to the Directors of Graduate Studies (DGSAs) Share Their Prescriptions for Persistence

As the heartfelt accolades in this issue’s second feature article demonstrate, assistants to the directors of graduate studies (DGSAs) play a critical role in guiding graduate students throughout their courses of study. In what follows, DGSAs representing a range of disciplines within the Graduate School (biological sciences, humanities, physical sciences, and social sciences) share some of their advice for getting off to a good start in graduate education.

Caroline Morris, the DGSA in Chemistry, provides some practical reminders: check your Duke e-mail every day, always carry your DukeCard with you, and give DGSAs the opportunity to help you by asking all those questions about the non-academic aspects of your graduate career, such as payroll, program policies, registration, and deadlines. She also shares the following thoughts with international students:

Take advantage of services offered by the International House. Their job is to ease what is often a stressful transition for new international students. Also, international students are responsible for keeping all their visa information up to date; so don’t wait until the last minute to file for your new I-20 or leave the country without making sure you have all the necessary documentation to get back in. Also, don’t plan your return flight to Duke from outside the country with only a day or two left before the semester starts. You’d be surprised at how many times international students miss the start of a semester because they were significantly delayed in their return while their visa was being checked.

Anne Lacey, DGSA in Biology, encourages graduate students to stay healthy, mentally and physically. At departmental orientation meetings, she covers issues like bike safety, tick-borne illness, and not walking alone at night. She also shares the following thoughts:

Graduate school is difficult—even if you want to be here; if you are burned out, depressed, or ill, it can become impossible. The nature of graduate research in a science department can be very isolating. Often, the simplest way to find your friends is to look among the other students, which means almost all your time is spent with other grad students who study with the same faculty you do, and who have similar goals, concerns, and worries. I encourage you to find some friends outside the department, and to find time for movies, hobbies, and exercise. I encourage you to take electives, such as dance, tennis, and music classes, along with your tutorials and graded research. Those classes are good for your minds and souls (and they don’t cost you anything!).

Holly Francis, DGSA in Cultural Anthropology, offers a no-nonsense approach for staying on track academically:

I always tell our students to watch how many courses they decide to take. The standard load in the social sciences is three classes, but many students enter the program anxious to do more. The workload in a Ph.D. program is much greater than most incoming students ever imagined; so at least in the first year, my recommendation is to stop at three and take care not to overdo it. I also encourage them to pay close attention to the requirements of their particular program, both during and beyond the first year. Checking one’s progress on a regular basis, even if everything is on track, is time well spent. It is certainly better than being surprised by a missed requirement near the end of one’s study. Finally, stress is the enemy of persistence; so don’t underestimate the value of taking time to relax and have fun. At times, a much-needed break can be just as important as time spent on course work.

And Tiwonda Johnson-Blount, DGSA in Literature, shares these final thoughts on setting realistic goals:

Maintain a positive attitude and stay motivated at all times. Be realistic about what you can accomplish and don’t over extend yourself; set daily, weekly, or monthly goals. If you set a goal and don’t reach it, instead of focusing on why you didn’t meet the goal, focus on how you can attain the goal the next time around.

 The Office of Information Technology (OIT) offers a variety of free training to support Duke’s academic needs and assist the University community in using OIT-specific tools. Several of these training opportunities give graduate students the chance to learn skills that contribute to their professional development as teachers and researchers.

Free Technology Training Seminars

OIT’s series of free technology training seminars includes several offerings of particular interest to graduate students. Among the most relevant are their scalable computing topics and OIT training on Duke-specific tools, such as introductions to the Duke Wiki and WebFiles.

Learn IT @ Lunch

The Learn IT @ Lunch series provides another opportunity to learn about technology directly from Duke information technology staff. Each session includes a presentation followed by a Q & A session in a relaxed lunch environment. Sessions planned for this fall include:
• Online Training Opportunities @ Duke
• “Information Security? -Easy!” (practical and simple steps to secure your computer and your data)
• Wiki Tricks: DukeWiki Advanced Formatting
• VoiceThread
All Duke students, staff, and faculty are welcome to participate. No preregistration is required.

OnDemand Training

OnDemand Training allows Duke groups to request training for group or course needs. This service focuses on Duke-specific tools (such as the DukeWiki and iTunes U) and in-classroom training for tools and technology related to the Duke Digital Initiative. Last fall, for example, OIT presented training about creating a professional online portfolio to the graduate student group, Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE). Erica Tsai, WiSE planning committee chair, shared that “Christine Vucinich at OIT was a pleasure to work with. She tailored a program to the needs of our student group, was very approachable as a teacher, and helped a bunch of newbies make their first Web sites.” Groups interested in scheduling an OnDemand training session should submit an online request form a few weeks to a month in advance of the desired training date.

Christine Vucinich, technical education and outreach coordinator for OIT, encourages graduate students to take advantage of these programs.

To better meet graduate student needs, we began offering a scalable computing seminar series and began offering our more popular prescheduled seminars at various times throughout the day to allow more opportunities to participate in between work and classes. We are also in the process of piloting online tutorials and are finalizing plans to launch as part of our service offerings in the upcoming academic year.

Contributors: Erica Tsai, Christine Vucinich

My dissertation research explores how racial ideologies permeate societies and families, particularly how Brazilian families process racial hierarchies in ways that lead to differential treatment and diverse mental health outcomes for family members. Current research often conceives of racial discrimination as race-specific experiences associated with external sources, such as job discrimination, educational inequality, and residential segregation. This project aims to highlight the ways that the dominance of racial ideologies leads to discrimination at every level of social relations. The family as a social institution is not exempt from functioning in ways that reproduce inequality. Feminist theorists have made this link very clear in their work on gender socialization in families. This project hopes to make a unique contribution by analyzing the practices and discourses associated with racial socialization and differential treatment (based on color and race) in families.

This was my second research trip to Brazil and to the city of Salvador. I was attracted to Brazil because, outside of Nigeria, it is the country with the largest population of African descendants. It is the largest country in Latin America and its history of racial mixture has created a type of physical diversity within families that seems unparalleled. Moreover, the city Salvador is considered a major hub of African culture in the Americas. All of these factors together make Salvador an ideal location for my research.

What I enjoyed most about this trip was connecting with the extensive network of researchers who study racial inequality in Brazil. My dissertation advisor, Professor of Sociology Eduardo Bonilla-Silva strongly encouraged me to meet with Brazilian scholars and helped me secure funding to do so. In order to identify key researchers in Brazil, I had to draw extensively on Duke faculty. For example,  Susan B. King Professor of Public Policy Studies and Professor of Sociology, Community and Family Medicine, and African and African American Studies Sherman James, who has published work on health disparities in Brazil, was absolutely fundamental to helping me establish my initial connections to researchers at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA). In fact, his academic connections to Brazil include having mentored several Brazilian researchers, physicians, and even the current President of UFBA! Additionally, Gladys Mitchell, former postdoc at Duke, provided me with incredible contacts who ultimately helped me select my research site. Fortunately for students, the wealth of resources at Duke is linked to both its financial capacity and its human capital. I made it a priority to tap into both of these resources for this project.

Elizabeth Hordge Freeman with UFBA research contacts Dr. Antonio Alberto Lopes (Associate Provost of Research & Graduate Studies) and Gildete Lopes, RN (researcher at UFBA)

The main purpose of this second research trip was to meet with researchers and activists in order to speak with them more explicitly about my project. The group of people that I found most memorable during this trip was a group of Afro-Brazilian activists associated with the Steve Biko Institute and the movimento negro (black movement.) These activists have been instrumental in articulating the role that historical and current racist practices play in maintaining inequality. I spoke with the institute’s director, Silvio Humberto, who has done tremendous work in developing programs to help disadvantaged Afro-Brazilian youth enter college. In Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, I met with Dr. Maria Ines Barbosa, activists, and researchers at the United Nations Fund for Women (UNIFEM), who offered incredible insight about the social psychological aspects of racial socialization in families. Seeking feedback from these activists and researchers was important because my research addresses very sensitive issues. Indeed, initiating a conversation about how racism impacts the way that people are treated within their own families is a conversation that is necessary but difficult. This is especially true because one of the primary goals of the movimento negro is to unify African descendants, both pardos (browns) and pretos (blacks). I was concerned about how my project might be viewed–whether it would be seen as undermining the efforts of the movement. Therefore, it was important to receive feedback from community members, researchers, and activists about my project. I was excited that upon hearing about my research, they overwhelming asserted the importance of the project. Moreover, they worked closely with me to consider several factors that contribute to racial socialization and helped me frame the research question in a way that was respectful to and appropriate for Brazilian family dynamics. For decades there has been this transnational dialogue occurring between Brazilian and North American researchers, my interactions with researchers and activists in Brazil suggests that this dialogue is continuing to grow and there is a great sense of responsibility that goes along with me now being part of this.

I would encourage my fellow students to pursue opportunities that allow them to connect with international communities or connect their research agenda to global concerns. For those already engaged in such projects, I encourage them to work collaboratively with community members both when developing research ideas and throughout the data collection process. In addition, it is important for researchers to be reflexive enough to discuss how our positionalities (class, race, gender, nationality) impact the types of questions that we ask, how we collect data and how we interpret that data. My collaboration with the community and researchers will be a continual process. I think that fostering a spirit of collaboration is absolutely essential to international and even local research. In the past, researchers have valued personal distance or indifference as the presumed mark of objectivity. Given the ethnographic nature of this project, I believe that establishing a collaborative research relationship and personal connections with the community will allow me to me produce a rich and insightful dissertation makes a compelling contribution to sociology.

Contributor: Elizabeth Hordge Freeman

Gay Trotter, DGSA in the Department of Religion, speaking with members of the Graduate School staff

“Olga Baranova, the DGSA of the Medical Physics Graduate Program, is the primary administrator for the program. Without her dedicated, caring support for administration and for the students, we truly could not be where we are right now. As such, I have always felt that “A” in “DGSA” standing for “assistant” is a gross understatement of the crucial role that DGSAs are playing in the running of our graduate programs.”
Ehsan Samei, DGS–Biomedical Engineering

“Perhaps the best way to emphasize the benefits of getting to know and staying in touch with your DGSA is to provide quotes from students about our DGSA in Business Administration, Bobbie Clinkscales:
     ‘You’ve been a huge help in my transition here.’
     ‘You are always there for us.’
     ‘Thank you for taking care of us.’
     ‘Thank you for all your hard work and kind support during my Ph.D. study.’
The DGSA plays a crucial role by providing help and support in dealing with the many issues that arise during a student’s program.”
Jim Bettman, DGS–Business Administration

“The Cell and Molecular Biology (CMB) program’s DGSA, Carol Richardson, is our go-to person when students need to find out about nearly every aspect of graduate life at Duke, from what to do when they first get here to what to do when they are ready to graduate. She is a bottomless-pit of years of collective wisdom for everything that happens in-between: matching mentors with student’s personalities, highlighting students who have really excelled, and identifying students who could use some extra assistance to smooth transitions. She’s not just the glue that holds the program together, she’s the rubber cement—flexible yet strong and long-lasting!”
Meta Kuehn, DGS–Cell and Molecular Biology

“The DGSA for my program, Andrea Lanahan, is a VITAL source of all information and advice for me as DGS and for the students. She informs us on university policies, takes the initiative to identify what we need and to make sure we get the outcome we want, identifies practical solutions to seemingly insurmountable problems… sometimes I think she should wear a red cape and a shirt with a big ‘S’ on it.”
Mohamed Noor, DGS–University Program in Genetics and Genomics

“Certainly, without the DGSA our department would be in trouble. Kathy Parrish does a great job of being the point of contact whenever forms need to be filled out (graduation, committee, etc), and also in recruiting students, where Kathy handles most of the departmental communication and keeps tabs on our applicant pool. Kathy and I have developed a great working relationship and rely on each other for managing the graduate student affairs in our department.”
Stefan Zauscher, DGS–Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science

“I started as DGS in Music just a couple of months ago, so I feel keenly the value of a top-notch DGSA. Christy Reuss was thinking ahead right from our first meeting, for which she had made a check-list that brought me up to speed immediately. We quickly established an efficient working relationship. Having a rapport allows us to effectively delegate or collaborate on tasks, which makes both of our jobs go more smoothly.”
Philip Rupprecht, DGS–Music

“The DGSA–because he or she often posseses institutional knowledge both about best departmental practices and the history behind those practices, and about the appropriate people in the Graduate School for the management of different kinds of student concerns and problems–plays a vital role in the smooth, professional operation of a graduate program. The DGSA is also important as the first point-of-contact to new and returning students, and often provides a human, kind face to a department as students, new and old, navigate the often-stressful experience of graduate school.”
Joseph M. Grieco, DGS–Political Science

“Why should students stay in close touch with the DGSA? Gay Trotter’s work with graduate students in Religion over the years provides an easy answer: Because she knows everything about how the Graduate School runs and the staff who deal with various issues. She helps graduate students at every step of the way–from getting oriented at Duke to the final submission of their dissertations. A quick visit with a DGSA like Gay Trotter can save a student a lot of time, effort, and perplexity in unraveling the mysteries of the Graduate School.”
Elizabeth Clark, DGS–Religion

“Melanie Mitchell will anticipate your every need and is dogged in her ability to get answers to any and every question. She’s more than an administrator–she’s an advocate for graduate students and someone deeply invested in making their experience at Duke as effortless and productive as possible.”
Tina Campt, DGS–Women’s Studies

The Kenan Institute for Ethics

The Kenan Institute for Ethics, housed in 102 West Duke Building on East Campus, is an interdisciplinary “think and do” tank committed to understanding and addressing real-world ethical challenges facing individuals, organizations, and societies worldwide. The Institute promotes ethical reflection and engagement through research, education, and practice in three core areas of Moral Education & Development, Organizational Ethics, and Civic & Global Ethics. Current projects include work on civic engagement, workplace culture, and immigration policy in the U.S. and Europe. The Institute works across the University as one of Duke’s signature initiatives, exemplifying Duke’s commitment to interdisciplinary teaching and research, internationalization, and knowledge in the service of society.

The Institute supports the work of Duke’s graduate students through its Graduate Awards, its Campus Grants program, and numerous research opportunities. “We appreciate the many contributions graduate students make to the Kenan Institute for Ethics, and we’re always eager to create new opportunities for collaboration,” says Associate Director Suzanne Shanahan.

Graduate Awards

The Kenan Institute for Ethics offers two annual Graduate Awards and a Graduate Colloquium to support the ethics-related research and teaching of Duke graduate students. The Kenan Dissertation Fellowship in Ethics is awarded annually to an advanced graduate student writing a dissertation with a substantial focus on ethics. The Kenan Instructorship in Ethics is awarded annually to an advanced graduate or professional school student proposing to design and teach an undergraduate course with a substantial ethical focus in his or her area of expertise. The Graduate Colloquium is an interdisciplinary group of advanced graduate students from across the University whose work contains a substantial focus on ethics. It includes current recipients of the Kenan Dissertation Fellowship and Instructorship and graduate students selected from the combined pool for the two awards.

Campus Grants Program

Monetary support for graduate student projects is provided through the Institute’s Campus Grants program. Grants of up to $500 are available to support initiatives that promote ethical or moral reflection, deliberation, and dialogue at Duke and beyond. Past grants have been awarded to fund workshops, film series, classes, and other projects.

Research Opportunities

The Kenan Institute for Ethics offers a number of additional, unique opportunities to graduate students. Current work includes research projects on academic integrity and global governance, as well as writing case studies for the Institute’s Case Studies in Ethics archive.

Contributors: Aimee Rodriguez, Suzanne Shanahan