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Niall Schroder

2021-2022 Religions and Public Life Graduate Fellows Announced

Posted on by Niall Schroder

Religions and Public Life at the Kenan Institute for Ethics explores the role of religions in historical and cultural context as they influence the lives of their adherents, interact with each other across time and geography, and contribute to the formation of institutions that make up the public sphere. This year, ten Religions and Public Life Graduate Fellows have been selected from Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill to be a part of an interdisciplinary working group to engage questions regarding the place of religion in contemporary social and political life. Building upon last year’s theme, this year’s theme will be “Immigration and Religion.”

On the working group’s focus, Professor Malachi Hacohen notes, “At a time when borders are closing and walls are being erected, an interdisciplinary graduate student group is responding with a model of collaboration for our world. Bringing together students from Divinity and the Graduate School, and with campus wide support from the Kenan Institute for Ethics, Center for Jewish Studies, Duke Islamic Studies Center, and Duke University Middle East Studies Center, graduate students studying divergent regions of the globe will explore the relationship between immigration and religion, seeking religious paths to the reconstruction of human life.” Over the course of the academic year, the cohort will discuss and develop their respective projects, providing each other with mutual support and opportunities for collaboration. Their work will be shared on the Religions and Public Life website at the conclusion of the fellowship.

Previous years’ themes include “Immigration and Religion” (2020-21), “Church and State” (2019-20), “Pain and Joy: Polemics and Praise in Religious Communities” (2018-19), and “Minorities and Diasporas” (2017-18).

Meet the Fellows:

2021-2022 Kenan Graduate Fellows Announced

Posted on by Niall Schroder

Graduate Fellows BlogEach year, 15 Kenan Graduate Fellows are selected to be part of an inter-disciplinary research community focused on significant normative questions. This year’s cohort come from Ph.D. programs in five faculties/schools, and 12 different departments at Duke. They will meet throughout the year with the general aim of enhancing each other’s ability to contribute to debates involving ethical issues, and to do so in ways that engage scholars and others within, and especially outside, their own academic disciplines. Professor Wayne Norman, who directs the Graduate Fellows program, notes that “This year’s Fellows all face a double challenge. They were selected because they are each tackling timely – and often timeless – questions in their Ph.D. dissertations: political polarization, diversity and inclusion in higher education, religion and violence, global inequality, and sources of bias in moral reasoning from law to political science. But they are also trying to make sense of our world and their own career paths as we struggle to climb out of a global pandemic.”

Some students, from disciplines such as philosophy, political theory, or theology, focus directly on fundamental ethical or political concepts and theories. Other Fellows, from the sciences and social sciences, try to understand phenomena that are relevant to major, and often controversial, public-policy debates. Still others attempt to resolve debates in their areas of research that seem to be sustained by long-standing disagreements over both empirical claims and ethical or ideological commitments.

Read more about the Kenan Graduate Fellowship.

Meet the Fellows

What is Good Art? 2021 Call for Proposals

Posted on by Niall Schroder

The Kenan Institute for Ethics invites students from across Duke to submit artwork for What Is Good Art?–an exhibit on ethics and art that will be held at the Keohane-Kenan Gallery on the first floor of the West Duke Building on East Campus.

The theme for the show is “The New Normal: The Effects of Coronavirus”. Works should explore the impacts of Coronavirus, focusing on the role that art plays in our lives as we continue to battle the global pandemic one and a half years later. From minor changes in our everyday routine, to larger structural and systemic changes, how has our society transformed and what modifications may remain long after the pandemic is over?

Artwork may be in any two or three-dimensional format, including the following:

  • Painting (oil, acrylic, watercolor)
  • Drawing (pastel, pencil, charcoal)
  • Textiles
  • Short Film/ Video
  • Photography
  • Mixed media
  • Digital photographs, illustration or manipulations

Work submitted by graduate/professional students will be judged separately from undergraduate submissions. The panel-designated winners will be unveiled at the Gallery opening event, to be held on November 5th, 2021. The First Prize entry will receive $500; $300 and $100 will be awarded for Second Prize and Third Prize, respectively. One additional “People’s Choice” prize will be awarded, to be based upon the votes of event attendees and will also receive a $100 prize.

THE SUBMISSION DEADLINE IS OCTOBER 8th, 2021!

 

COMPETITION RULES:

The competition is open to all currently-enrolled Duke undergraduate and graduate students.

  • All submissions must be submitted via the submission form on the Kenan Institute for Ethics’ website by 11:59:59 pm EDT on October 8th, 2021.
  • All submissions must be original artwork created by the artist(s) indicated on the submission form.
  • Each individual artist may submit up to two (2) pieces for consideration.
  • Groups may submit single works, provided none of their members exceed two submissions.
  • Artwork may be in any two or three-dimensional format, including the following:
    • Painting (oil, acrylic, watercolor)
    • Drawing (pastel, pencil, charcoal)
    • Textiles
    • Mixed media
    • Digital photographs, illustration or manipulations
      • Digital still work should be submitted as a jpeg file, with a 5 megapixel (2560 x 1920px) minimum resolution, in sRGB
    • Short Film/Video (not to exceed 10 minutes in length)
      • Video work should be submitted as an mp4 file, with a minimum resolution of 720p
    • Artists should include a 1-3 paragraph explanation of the work as part of the submission form. The judging panel will use this statement when evaluating the piece. If the piece is selected, the statement will be mounted alongside the work.
    • A panel of faculty and staff will judge submissions based on effectiveness in fusing interesting ethical ideas and artistic expression.
    • Works chosen as finalists must be available for display by November 1st, 2021. For photographs, artists may either provide printed enlargements for mounting, or the Kenan Institute for Ethics will arrange for enlargements to be made. Photographic enlargements paid for by the Kenan Institute for Ethics will be the property of the Kenan Institute for Ethics. Please contact Jose Ortega (ortega@duke.edu) for details.
    • Selected pieces will be displayed in the Keohane-Kenan Art Gallery until December 6th, 2021.

Students must make arrangements to claim their work by December 13, 2021. Please contact Jose Ortega (jose.ortega@duke.edu) for details.

Submit your work here

Duke University Joseph Shatzmiller Fellowship in Jewish Studies

Posted on by Niall Schroder

The Shatzmiller Graduate Fellows honor Emeritus Smart Professor Joseph Shatzmiller, who taught at Duke University from 1994 to 2010. Among his many publications, he is best known for Shylock Reconsidered: Jews, Moneylending, and Medieval Society and Jews, Medicine, and Medieval Society. Fellowships offer advanced graduate students the opportunity to engage with prominent national and international scholars in Jewish Studies visiting the seminar and to connect with the Jewish Studies faculty active in the seminar. Fellows receive a research stipend and a seminar session devoted to their work. The Shatzmiller Fellows are funded by the Duke Center for Jewish Studies.

 

Not pictured: Robin Buller

Apply to Purpose Project Graduate Fellowships

Posted on by Niall Schroder

DukeEngage (Duke’s signature community engagement program for undergraduates) is now offering an opportunity for graduate students.

Supported by funding from DukeEngage and The Purpose Project at Duke, GradEngage is an opportunity for up to 24 Duke graduate students to deepen a partnership with a North Carolina community during academic year 2021-2022. GradEngage fellowships create opportunities for students to explore their vocation and the purpose of their graduate work by engaging with a community on a pressing social issue.

Learn more

 

 

 

The Race and the Professions Fellowship is a program of the Purpose Project at Duke, a campus-wide, faculty-led effort cultivating moral purpose, fostering virtuous community, and promoting flourishing professions. The Fellowship is a year-long program inviting first-year Duke graduate and professional students to explore racial justice and anti-racism within the professions. All incoming, first-year graduate and professional students are invited to apply.

Eighteen Fellows will meet about a dozen times across Fall and Spring semesters for moderated conversations that will feature visiting speakers from a variety of professions. Each session will require modest preparation. Over the course of the year, Fellows will develop individual or joint proposals for summer projects aimed at ‘‘on-the-ground” racial justice and anti-racism work.

Learn more

Apply to Kenan Graduate Fellowships

Posted on by Niall Schroder

Graduate Fellows BlogEach year, the Kenan Institute for Ethics awards between 10 and 15 fellowships to outstanding graduate students at Duke University.

Students from any Duke Ph.D. program may apply. What each cohort of Graduate Fellows will have in common is that their dissertation research engages in interesting ways with significant normative issues. Some students, for example – from disciplines such as philosophy, political theory, or theology – focus directly on fundamental ethical or political concepts and theories. Other fellows, from the sciences and social sciences, try to understand phenomena that are relevant to major, and often controversial, public policy debates. Still others attempt to resolve debates in their areas of research that seem to be sustained by long-standing disagreements over both empirical claims and ethical or ideological commitments.

Learn more

 

Religions and public life graduate working groupEach year, Religions and Public Life at KIE funds a Graduate Student Working Group around a theme important to religion and public life. The Program has made Immigration and Religion a focus of its current interests, and this year’s group will continue the work begun in 2020-21. Members of last year’s group are welcome to reapply but preference will be given to new applicants.

The call is open to graduate and professional students wishing to take part in monthly interdisciplinary student-led seminars on “Immigration and Religion.” A wide variety of projects exploring this theme are welcome, including topics such as: Immigrant Religion, the Place of Religion in the Support of Displaced Communities, Religious Activists and Immigrant Rights, Religion in the Refugee Crisis, Migration and Theology, and Religion, Migration, and Identity.

 

Learn more