Kenan Institute for Ethics
The Kenan Institute for Ethics is an interdisciplinary home for faculty, students, and staff dedicated to understanding and negotiating the moral challenges of our time through the energetic and capacious pursuit of good.
Good judgment, good character, good citizens, good government, the greatest good, the common good… We speak often of good, but in the absence of agreement about what we mean when we deploy the word. Good pursuits are passionate arguments about what it means to be human—about who we are, what we are doing, and what we ought to do.
Read more about good pursuits in this letter from our director, and explore stories about our programs below.
Good Life
Offering transformational educational experiences to students, alumni, and the public
To Help Engineers Build Better, Character Forward Aims to Build Better Engineers
Character Forward, a new initiative launched by the Pratt School of Engineering in partnership with The Purpose Project at Duke, offers strategies to help engineering faculty incorporate character education into their courses.
Through Storytelling, Pre-Health Students Learn How to Connect to the Communities They Serve
Re-Imagining Medicine is a summer program that asks pre-health students to develop an understanding of their own stories, the stories of their communities, and the stories of the cultures that have shaped them — the first step in a process of ethical reflection that they will hopefully continue in their future careers as healthcare practitioners.
Good Community
Building bridges from classroom and campus to local and regional communities
Through Story of Bus Killing in Durham, N.C., “Changing Same” Exposes Discrimination and Violence Faced by Black Soldiers During Jim Crow
A new play presented by America's Hallowed Ground, “Changing Same,” recounts an incident of racial violence that happened in Durham, North Carolina, just a few blocks north of Duke University’s East Campus — the 1944 killing of Private Booker T. Spicely, a Black Army soldier who pushed back against Jim Crow segregation laws.
DukeEngage Gateway Program Preps Incoming First-Years to Better Serve Home Communities
A new three-day "Summer School" offered by the DukeEngage Gateway program brought incoming first-years to campus to learn about the ethics of community-based work — just as they were embarking on service projects in their hometowns.
Good Society
Assessing and imagining institutions that meet the needs of our common life
After Fifteen Years Learning and Teaching in Prisons, Rev. Dr. Louis Threatt is Even ”More Inspired”
In 2009, Prison Engagement Initiative member Rev. Dr. Louis Threatt was among the first Duke Divinity School students to take courses alongside incarcerated students as part of Project TURN. Fifteen years later, he is still involved in prison education — teaching in Duke Divinity School's Certificate in Prison Studies program, advising faculty on how to bring their courses inside prisons, and advocating for incarcerated students.
“Scene on Radio” Unravels History of Capitalism — and Considers Alternative Futures
In its dozen-plus episodes, the new season of the podcast "Scene on Radio" unravels the history of our current economic system and speculates on its future — including whether or not it has one.
