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
This Senior is Embracing Life — While Helping Others Talk about Death
When Jenna Yeam T‘25 first stepped onto Duke’s campus her freshman year, she never would have imagined that she would graduate planning to become an end-of-life doula — a non-medical professional who provides support, companionship, and guidance to people facing a terminal illness or imminent death.
Your Ethics 101 Assignment: No Lying for a Week. What Do You Learn?
In this introductory course, students grapple with ethical issues through practical assignments, like spending a week without telling lies or intentionally deceiving anyone. Along the way, they learn that talking about ethics is a good way to deepen relationships. It's also really fun.
Good Community
Building bridges from classroom and campus to local and regional communities
Just Environments Reveals the High Costs of Living Near Hog and Poultry Farms in N.C.
New research published by Just Environments reveals that North Carolina poultry farms decrease the value of nearby homes by 30%, raising questions about the growing industry’s impact on nearby 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.
Good Society
Assessing and imagining institutions that meet the needs of our common life
How a Course on Restorative Justice Shaped Two Students’ Paths at Duke
Will Lieber T‘25 and Jenna Smith T‘25 arrived at Duke with interests in criminal justice and incarceration. A Kenan Institute for Ethics course on Restorative Justice, taught by Associate Director Ada Gregory, ended up shaping their paths in unexpected — but perhaps unsurprising — ways.
A New Study Asks: How Do Kids Figure out Where They Stand Politically?
Where do our political attitudes come from? Worldview Lab co-directors Stephen Vaisey and Christopher Johnston say that most research focuses on subjects in early to middle adulthood — by which point political views are often already solidified. Hoping to fill in the gaps, they've teamed up with Duke sociologist Jessi Streib and Bass Connections to conduct a study focused on 10–12-year-old children.
