Grad Engage Fellows Announced

Posted on December 16, 2020December 16, 2020 by Niall Schroder

The Purpose Project at Duke is pleased to announce the inaugural cohort of the GradEngage Fellowship, which will provide an opportunity for Duke graduate and professional students to deepen a partnership with a North Carolina community or organization of their choosing during the winter break and spring semester.

The GradEngage fellows represent a wide range of departments and professional schools at Duke, and through their funded work, fellows will be able to explore the purpose of their graduate studies by making connections between pressing social issues and communities and organizations on the ground.

Unique Whitehurst, a Master of Science in Nursing student, said the fellowship will provide her with direct support in her mission to improve statistically projected negative health outcomes in underserved communities.

“A huge a barrier the Durham community faces in achieving optimal health is a lack of access to healthcare resources and poor health literacy,” she said. “My project addresses both of these facts, and with the help of GradEngage, I will be able to expand efforts aimed at eradicating these barriers.”

Throughout the course of the winter and spring, fellows will serve 100 hours virtually and will submit reflections about their work and experience over the course of the project.

Funded by a grant from The Duke Endowment, The Purpose Project at Duke is a multi-year, campus-wide initiative focused on integrating a focus on character, purpose, and vocation into undergraduate, graduate, and professional education. The initiative is hosted by the Kenan Institute for Ethics in collaboration with the Divinity School and the Office of Undergraduate Education.

Duke University Joseph Shatzmiller Fellowship in Jewish Studies

Posted on November 23, 2020 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.

Valentina Grasso
After Classical Studies in high school, I obtained a bachelor degree in 2015 at the University of Catania in Semitic Philology (110/110cum laude). At Catania I mainly studied Imperial Aramaic and Classical Arabic. My thesis was focused onthe Philistines and the early alphabets of the Mediterranean. During the same year, I attended the Oxford University Biblical Summer School and later I enrolled for the Master's degree in “Oriental Languages and Cultures” at the University of Naples “L’Orientale” where I continued to study both Classical Arabic and Biblical Hebrew. My M.A. dissertation in Islamic Studies was entitled “The Pre-Islamic Milieu of Arabia. An Inquiry into the Jāhiliya and the Rise of the Latest Abrahamic Religion” (110/110cumlaude). I spent my last M.A. year in England, as an Erasmus student at SOAS, University of London, where I have also studied Farsi. During my studies, I have also attended courses at the University of Oxford and Princeton University.I am currently a final-year Ph.D. candidate at the University of Cambridge working on the history of late antique pre-Islamic Arabia under the supervision of Professor Garth Fowden. I am interested in the religious history of the first millennium, and the interlinked development of rabbinic Judaism, patristic Christianity and early Islam. Throughout my academic career, I have always been interested in Jewish Studies, as testified by my study of Aramaic and Biblical Hebrew during my B.A. and my M.A. I look forward to deepening my understanding of the ancient, late antique and Medieval Jewish World which are at the core of my academic research by attending the NC Jewish Studies Seminar.

Lea Greenberg
Lea Greenberg is a Ph.D. candidate in the Carolina-Duke Graduate Program in German Studies. She earned a B.A. in German with a Concentration in Russian, Central and East European Studies from Grinnell College in 2014. After graduation, she worked as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Berlin. Her dissertation research considers issues of language, literacy, and gender in German and Yiddish literature. In 2018–2019, Lea was a fellow of the Berlin Program of the Freie Universität Berlin and German Studies Association. She currently holds a Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship.

David Orenstein
David Orenstein is a PhD student in the History of Judaism field of study within the Graduate Program in Religion at Duke University pursuing minors in American Religion and Political Science as well as certificates in Middle East Studies, Writing in the Disciplines, and College Teaching.He holds an MA degree in Religious Studies from Duke University and MA degrees in Jewish Professional Leadership as well as Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from Brandeis University.David also received BA degrees in Jewish Studies and Psychology as well as minors in Hebrew and Religious Studies from Indiana University Hutton Honors College.

Joshua Shelly
Joshua Shelly joined the Carolina-Duke German Studies program in Fall 2016. He holds a BA in German and History from Wayne State University (2011) and an MLS(2013) and MA in Religious Studies (2015) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Hisresearch field covers German Jewish literature during the latenineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In his dissertation, he explores the role of German Jewish literature, especially utopian works, in imagining future Jewishspaces, including the future Jewish state. His research has been supported by fellowships from the Leo Baeck Institute (2019–2020) and the Berlin Program forAdvanced German and European Studies (2020–2021).

Matthew Creighton
Matthew Creighton is a doctoral candidate in the field of Religion and Literature at the University of Chicago Divinity School. His areas of research interest are in comparative theology, psychoanalysis, and modern literature, and he has taught courses on Judaism, literary criticism, and theories and methods in the study of religion. He is currently completing a doctoral dissertation on representations of fathers and sons in German-Jewish literature, and their bearing on religious identities and commitments. He can be reached at mcreighton@uchicago.edu.

Announcing the 20|20 Scholars

Posted on November 23, 2020 by Niall Schroder

“It is one thing to say you want to do something and another to act on it,” said Allison Falls, a first-year student who said the work of the Black Lives Movement and the COVID-19 pandemic exposed long-established racial injustices that solidified her desire to work in the healthcare field. Falls is one of 16 first and second-year students selected for the 2020 Scholars Fellowship, a new year-long program sponsored by The Purpose Project at Duke that explores and engages the challenges of racial justice work that the events of 2020 have cast in such sharp relief.

Throughout the course of the year, the 16 scholars will participate in an 8-week intensive preparatory seminar series to gain foundational insights into the landscape of racial justice and into students’ location within that space; immerse themselves in a community-based project for racial justice through Duke Engage; and will participate in a fall course that builds upon and expands the spring and summer experiences to critically reimagine the future of work for racial justice.

“We are thrilled to launch this new fellowship and to work with students who are eager to think critically about race and its impact on the world in which we live,” said A.J. Walton, associate director of The Purpose Project, who co-directs the program with Ada Gregory, the associate director of the Kenan Institute for Ethics. “In engaging with each other and with practitioners and organizations doing racial justice work, we believe students’ sense of purpose and possibilities will deepen and, in that, will lead them to work towards a different kind of future, while at Duke and long after.”

Alexia Jackson
Alexia Jackson is a first-year student from Centennial, Colorado, intending on majoring in Political Science and Public Policy. On-campus she is involved in the American Futures Institute, where she leads projects centered around elections and democracy, and is a member of Business Oriented Women.

Allison Falls
Allison Falls is a first-year student from Richlands, North Carolina, intending to major in Biology. She is passionate about the cross-section of medicine and racial justice. She is involved with Duke LIFE, the Cardea Fellows Program for students pursuing a health-related career, and Camp Kesem, a group that supports children through and beyond their parent's cancer.

Anisha Reddy
Anisha Reddy is a first-year student from Charlotte, North Carolina. She's planning to major in Public Policy with a minor in Sociology. She's passionate about community organizing and grassroots voter outreach efforts, as well as reforming our criminal justice system. At Duke, Anisha is a staff reporter for The Chronicle and a member of the Duke International Relations Association.

Antwaine Ellison
Antwaine Ellison is a first-year student from Newark, New Jersey, intending to major in Psychology and GSF (Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies). He’s passionate about Black and LGBTQIA+ youth receiving mental health services. He is also a Cardea Fellow, where he takes coursework to prepare him for his future profession.

Ashley Shaaf
Ashley Shaaf is a first-year student from Hillsdale, New Jersey. She intends to major in Computer Science and minor in Medical Sociology. She is passionate about strengthening STEM education in underrepresented communities and closing the racial and gender gap within the field of Computer Science. At Duke, Ashley is a member of the SPIRE Fellows and Women in Tech.

Derek Deng
Derek Deng is a first-year student from Los Angeles, California, majoring in Public Policy and Visual and Media Studies. On campus, he’s a staff columnist at The Chronicle, and is involved in Blue Devils United and Duke Impact Investing Group.

Gabrielle Battle
Gabrielle Battle is a second-year student from Oakland, California, majoring in Public Policy. She is deeply passionate about racial justice and has worked to advocate for marginalized communities, both in her hometown and at Duke. On campus, she is involved in the Black Student Alliance's Advocacy and Caucasus Committee, and she recently served on the Presidential Council on Black Affairs. She also serves as a research assistant for the Last Child Project at the Kenan Institute, as well as a research assistant at the Wilson Center for Science and Justice at Duke Law School.

Mackenzie Culp
Mackenzie Culp is a first-year student from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She intends to major in sociology in order to pursue her interest in the study of racial and gender hierarchies, as well as Spanish and Portuguese. At Duke, Mackenzie is a member of The American Experience FOCUS cluster, the Black Student Alliance, DukeLIFE, and the David M. Rubenstein Scholars Program and hopes to become involved with more student organizations in less abnormal semesters.

Quinn Smith
Quinn Smith is a second-year student majoring in public policy from Albuquerque, New Mexico, and is a member of the Chickasaw Nation. Aspiring to create change through storytelling, Quinn grapples with telling hard truths concerning Native American history, existence, and identity. His current project with Duke Gardens will transform the popular attraction into a space that tells indigenous stories. Quinn is a documentarian, filmmaker, writer for The Wellian Magazine, and violinist in the Duke Symphony.

Swetha Rajagopal
Swetha Rajagopal is a second-year student from Chandler, Arizona, who intends to double major in Biology and Global Health. She is passionate about delving into the issues of racial injustice present within the areas of housing, education, and healthcare. At Duke, Swetha is a DSG Senator on the Durham and Community Affairs Committee, and she was previously a Kenan Ethics in Place Fellow, in which she worked to expand access to healthcare for undocumented immigrants in Arizona.

Tessa Delgo
Tessa Delgo is a second-year student from Dunedin, Florida. She intends on double majoring in Psychology and Cultural Anthropology. At Duke, she is an editor for the Recess, the Arts & Culture section of The Chronicle, and works with the Community Empowerment Fund.

Ben Wallace
Ben Wallace is a second-year student from Apex, North Carolina, studying "Constructions of Race and Racial Attitudes in America" through Program II. He is interested in how he can leverage different mediums, from documentary to data, to investigate racial disparities and advocate for social justice. On campus, he serves as a co-chair of The Chronicle's Community Editorial Board and produces podcasts for Hear at Duke.

Eric Gim
Eric Gim is a current sophomore from Fullerton, California. He is intending to major in Economics with a Concentration in Finance, with a double minor in Political Science and Korean. He's passionate about the intersection between racial and economic inequality—especially in its role in influencing access to educational opportunities for marginalized communities. At Duke, Eric is an intern with the Nasher Museum of Art as well as a representative in Quad Council.

Matt Mohn
Matt Mohn is a first-year student from Houston, TX intending to major in Public Policy with a certificate in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. He is passionate about the ways that people’s lived experiences shape the way that communities vote and evolve. At home in Texas, he contributes to anti-gerrymandering campaigns but on campus he is a member of DIRA and Duke Debate.

Celine Wei
Celine Wei is a second-year student from Colleyville, Texas, planning on majoring in Literature and minoring in Sociology. She is involved with the Asian American Studies Working Group and Asian Students Association, as well as an opinion columnist for the Chronicle and a Huang Fellow. In addition, she works with Durham Beyond Policing and is passionate about abolitionist and anti-imperialist organizing.

Funded by a grant from The Duke Endowment, The Purpose Project at Duke is a multi-year, campus-wide initiative focused on integrating a focus on character, purpose, and vocation into undergraduate, graduate, and professional education. The initiative is hosted by the Kenan Institute for Ethics in collaboration with the Divinity School and the Office of Undergraduate Education.

Meet Team Kenan!

Posted on November 3, 2020November 3, 2020 by Niall Schroder

Team Kenan is a part of the Institute’s social and intellectual community, creating spaces for students, faculty, and Institute staff to think and talk about ethics outside of the classroom in fun and engaging ways. TK programs serve as a complement to the Institute’s curricular offerings, giving students who are interested in ethics additional opportunities to chat, think, and challenge one another and the wider Duke community. The team, made up of a diverse cross-section of Duke students, engages the Duke community through interviewing and informal conversations. Students conduct in-depth interviews with Duke students, faculty, and staff, as well as community members, on topics relevant to this time. They also host bi-weekly conversations for Duke students on topics like electoral politics, virtual learning, and relationships during COVID. Meant to inspire moments of connection, the TK team brings ethical inquiry to Duke students wherever they might be.

We welcome our new (and returning) members of the team!

Akshita Raghuvanshi
Akshita Raghuvanshi is a freshman in the Pratt School of Engineering. She is interested in biomedical engineering, psychology, and medicine.

Carolyn Huynh
Carolyn Huynh a senior from Dallas, Texas, and is an alumna of Project Change. She is considering co-majoring in Global Health and Neuroscience and is interested in the field of integrative medicine. You can usually find her drinking coffee at Vondy, watching Worth It Buzzfeed videos, or doing both at the same time.

CharlotteNavinWeinstein — Charlotte Navin Weinstein
Charlotte is a sophomore from London, UK who loves to sing and beat random GA residents at Ping-Pong. She is passionate about Women’s and Human Rights.

JeremyCarballo — Jeremy Carballo
Jeremy Carballo is a junior double majoring in public policy and political science with a concentration in normative political theory. On campus, he is involved in GANO and the Chronicle Editorial Board. He is currently a John M. Belk Fellow for the Hunt Institute where he works on educational equity policy. His research interests include structural Marxism, federalism, and amnesty for undocumented childhood arrival immigrants. After college, he plans on attending law school and focusing on constitutional law, or obtaining a masters in international affairs.

JJJiang — JJ Jiang
JJ is a junior from Toronto, Canada, majoring in Economics with minors in Psychology and Sociology. She loves learning about consumer psychology, decision science, and ethical technology. Some of her favourite hobbies include thrifting, cooking and watching crime TV shows.

Kyle Melatti
Kyle Melatti is a junior and future public policy and economics double major interested in ethics and ethical decision making as a part of the political process. He currently serves as a Senator for Duke Student Government on the Committee for Durham and Regional Affairs and also has a secondary appointment to the Senate Judiciary Committee. In his free time, he attends talks and presentations offered by the University to learn more about the issues going on in the world and what can be done to help.

LukenguTshiteya — Lukengu Tshiteya
Lukengu Tshiteya hails from Dallas, TX. He loves eating cucumbers and completing jigsaw puzzles. He is excited to make a difference at Duke and in the Durham community.

Maya Yvette-Lofton
Maya is a junior double majoring in ICS (focus Latin America & the Caribbean) and Cultural Anthropology with a certificate in Latin@ Studies in the Global South. She is a residential assistant and is also involved with a few cultural organizations on campus such as The Bridge and Mi Gente. She's interested in U.S. immigration policy and Brazilian identity politics and plans to explore these issues more profoundly as a Foreign Service Officer.

Miriam ShamsRainey — Miriam Shams-Rainey
Miriam Shams-Rainey is a sophomore from Dallas, Texas. She is an alumna of Project Change and is currently in the Ethics, Leadership, and Global Citizenship FOCUS program with academic interests ranging from social policy to music theory. Miriam enjoys writing poetry, thrift shopping, and trying to play pop songs on the violin. She is very excited to be a part of Team Kenan and to examine ethics in the Duke and Durham communities.

Olivia Reneau
Olivia Reneau is 3rd-year undergraduate student from Niceville, Florida. She is studying Public Policy with a concentration in domestic policy and racial wealthy inequality, history of the American south, and Japanese language. After graduation, she intends to work in policy research before pursuing her PhD in history or economics. She believes that reparations and reconciliation are the key to beginning to mend our fractured country and has a special interest (academic and personal) in these things as a result.

RandAlotaibi — Rand Alotaibi
Rand Alotaibi is a senior from Saudi Arabia majoring in Earth and Ocean Sciences with a certificate in Documentary Studies. On campus, she is involved with Duke SOA, Injaz and Duke Arab Association.

RishiDasgupta — Rishi Dasgupta
Rishi Dasgupta is completely undecided on what he wants to study, but he tells people he is a prospective neuroscience major. He loves cooking and trying new things, and his best friend is his golden retriever, Luna.

Announcing the Religions and Public Life Fellows 2020

Posted on September 28, 2020November 12, 2020 by Niall Schroder

Alberto La Rosa Rojas
Alberto La Rosa Rojas is a Th.D. candidate in Duke Divinity School. Alberto’s experience as an immigrant from Peru informs and fuels his research which engages the ethical and theological dimensions of migration and the human longing for home. His work weaves together insights from the reformed theological tradition as well as Latinx theology to think about how migrant’s and citizen/natives can cultivate a flourishing common home.

Allison Wattenbarger
Allison is a doctoral student in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament at Duke Divinity School. She studies hermeneutics and biblical interpretation and is particularly interested in texts of covenant and conquest and their reception in Jewish and Palestinian Christian traditions.

Andrew Carlins

Andrew is a Master of Management Studies student at Fuqua focusing on Management and Technology. His research focuses on understanding more about the role that religion and theology play in refugees' attitudes toward work, to advise policymakers on how to better integrate refugee populations into local economies. Andrew has a bachelor's degree from Duke in economics with a minor in history and a certificate in Jewish studies.

Darwin Perry

Darwin Perry is a third-year graduate student at Duke Divinity School. His research meets at the intersection of race, religion, and penal reform. More specifically he is interested in exploring the consequences of incarceration for BIPOC and the role of religious institution in providing frameworks and models for engaging populations disproportionately impacted by America’s carceral system. Prior to joining Duke Divinity School, Darwin studied Philosophy and African American studies at Grand Valley State University.

Ehsan Sheikholharam Mashhadi

Ehsan is a Teaching Fellow and a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Religious Studies at UNC Chapel Hill. Holding master’s degrees in architecture and religion, his work examines the religiosity of non-religious architecture. He draws on urban projects recognized by the Aga Khan Award for Architecture to show how spatial practices function in the construction of religious subjectivities. Ehsan has received recognition from institutions such as the University of Miami, Dumbarton Oaks’s Mellon Initiative, and the Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute. His work has been published in the American Academy of Religion’s Reading Religion, Maydan, CLOG, and WIT Press. Ehsan also serves as a Graduate Fellow at the Parr Center for Ethics.

Elsa Costa

Elsa is an intellectual historian concentrating on Spain and its possessions in the Renaissance and Enlightenment. Her dissertation explores how changes in the definition of public happiness accompanied the rise of absolutism in Spain. Originally from Chicago, Elsa has a BA in Latin American studies from Bennington College and an MA in Ibero-American history from Duke. Her other interests include twentieth-century French, German and Brazilian philosophy, medieval theories of pedagogy, and women’s writing in contemporary Latin America. She has published or presented papers on all these topics. Her dissertation research took her to Madrid and to Mexico City on a Fulbright-Hays grant, and she is now Bass instructional fellow and Capper fellow at Duke. In her spare time, she likes exploring walking routes of Durham with her dog Ivo and listening to music, most recently Hamilton Leithauser's new live album.

Iris Gilad

Iris is a third-year Art History Ph.D. student specializing in contemporary Middle-Eastern art. Her dissertation examines maps, mappings, and spatial subversions in the artworks of contemporary women Middle-Eastern artists. She is interested in exploring the intersections of gender, race, migration, and cartography.

Joseph Roso

Joseph is a PhD candidate at Duke University in the Department of Sociology. He is primarily interested in the sociology of religion, with a specific focus on how religious beliefs and communal worship practices intersect. He is currently studying discourse around immigration issues among evangelical opinion leaders and how that discourse has changed over time.

Joshua Strayhorn

Joshua is a doctoral student of history at Duke University. His research analyzes 19th and 20th century Black Migration in the United States. He is interested in the political, economic, and social factors that made migration possible and questions of emigration, citizenship, and belonging in the aftermath of Reconstruction.

Nurlan Kabdylkhak

Nurlan is a History PhD student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His dissertation project explores ethnic and religious transformations in late modern Central Asia.

Perry Sweitzer

Perry is a Ph.D. student in the Graduate Program in Religion. His research focuses on the intersection between religion and American culture and politics. Currently, he is doing ethnographic research on the contemporary sanctuary church movement, and is concerned with the relationship between religion and citizenship in the US.

Shin-fung Hung

Shin-fung is a PhD student in Religion (World Christianity) at Duke University. As a native Hongkonger and a Methodist, his current research focuses on the development of Methodism in Hong Kong and China. His area of interest also covers the intersections of Christianity and migration, diaspora study, and Hong Kong study.

Twelve graduate and professional students from Duke and UNC were selected to be a part of this year’s student working group. The theme this year is Immigration and Religion. Program Director, 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 to Business to Trinity and campus wide support from the Kenan Institute, Jewish Studies, Duke Islamic Studies Center, and the Duke University Middle East Studies Center graduate students studying divergent regions of the globe will be explore the relationship between immigration and religion, seeking religious paths to the reconstruction of human life.” Over the course of the academic year, in monthly meetings the cohort will discuss and develop their respective projects. Their work will be shared on the Religions and Public Life website at the conclusion of the fellowship.

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

The Purpose Project at Duke Announces Race and the Professions Fellows

Posted on September 18, 2020November 18, 2020 by Niall Schroder

The Purpose Project at Duke has announced the inaugural cohort of the Race and the Professions Fellowship, a year-long program that will explore the challenges of racial inequities and the work of antiracism in the professions, the broader community, and the world.

More than 200 graduate and professional students applied to the fellowship. The 28 fellows represent eight schools, eight Trinity departments, and three interdisciplinary programs.

In a series of online sessions, fellows will engage with scholars, activists, artists, and practitioners working on issues of race. During the summer, fellows can pursue an optional, funded project that aligns with the vision of the fellowship.

“In creating the fellowship, we wanted to bring together a diverse group of graduate and professional students who are eager to think collaboratively and work through matters of race in the context of the professions into which they’ll step when they leave Duke,” said A.J. Walton, associate director of The Purpose Project. “Our hope is that the fellowship will provide fellows with insight and imagination in ways that reframe what they believe is possible in dismantling racialized systems.”

Meet the fellows

Alejandro Garcia

Alejandro is a second-year Mechanical Engineering and Material Science MS student with an emphasis in Aerospace Engineering. His research interests are in Fluid Mechanics, Structural Dynamics, Vibrations, and Energy Harvesting. He is a TA for both a Leadership and Management course and Business Ethics course. He has a BS in Astrophysics and Physics from the University of Georgia.

Alma Solis

Alma Solis is second year Ph.D. student in the Evolutionary Anthropology department in Dr. Charles L. Nunn’s laboratory. Her research focuses on understanding how anthropogenic changes in land use, in northeastern Madagascar, impact infectious disease ecology, while also addressing health disparities by investigating disease exposure risk mediated by occupation. Her research interests are evolutionary medicine, infectious diseases, One Health, global health, and addressing health disparities. She is a Ford Foundation Fellow who hope to continue to advocate and promote diversity and inclusion in academia.

Alyssa Reyes

Alyssa Reyes is originally from Los Angeles, CA. She graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in Media Studies, and earned a Master’s in Special Education from CUNY Hunter College. After 5 years of teaching math and special education in NYC’s Brooklyn and Harlem neighborhoods, she is thrilled to pursue her passion for social justice at Duke Law School.

Amanda Farrell

Amanda Farrell is a fourth-year medical student who is passionate about women’s health, health equity, and global health. She is originally from the West Indies but moved to New York when she was nine. An aspiring OB-GYN, she is especially interested in how racial disparities affect outcomes in women’s health.

Amnazo Muhirwa

Amnazo Muhirwa is third-year PhD student in the School of Nursing. Her research interests fall at the intersection of race/ethnicity, gender and health. She is committed to conducting research that elucidates the mechanisms in which chronic stress becomes biologically embedded and impact the health of African American women.

Ayanna Jessica Crystal Legros

Ayanna Jessica Crystal Legros is completing a Ph.D. in the Department of History at Duke University. Her research focuses on the importance of sound cultures and radio in the lived experiences of Haitians based in the metropoles of Port-au-Prince and New York City during the Duvalier regimes (father and son). She has lived and worked in the Dominican Republic, Spain, Bolivia, and Colombia in the non-profit sector around issues of education, land rights, and racial justice. Through this fellowship, she hopes to gain more clarity about global and local justices issues and has grown tremendously throughout her time in Durham, North Carolina. When she is not conducting research, she is thinking about art history and working on her garden. She is excited to participate in this fellowship and learn from a collective of students across a diverse range of disciplines and fields of study across campus.

Brandee Newkirk

Brandee Newkirk is PhD student at Duke University in the Art, Art History and Visual Studies Department. Her research focuses primarily on modern and contemporary African American art with a focus on social justice. She earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Arizona where she worked with the university’s Black Student Union. She is also currently a member of her department’s Anti-Racism Task Force.

Crystal E. Peoples

Crystal E. Peoples is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology at Duke University. Her research focuses on trends and consequences of racial and gender inequality in higher education, with a particular interest in the role of social networks in perpetuating these inequalities. She has published work in The American Behavioral Scientist, The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, and The International Journal of Contemporary Mathematical Sciences. She completed a B.S. in Mathematics from Longwood University in 2012 and an M.S. in Sociology with graduate minors in Mathematics and Statistics from Iowa State University in 2015.

Darwin Perry

Darwin Perry is a third-year graduate student at Duke Divinity School. His research interest lies at the intersection between race, religion, and penal reform. Prior to joining Duke Divinity School, Darwin studied Philosophy and African American studies at Grand Valley State University.

Elana Horwitz

Elana Horwitz is a third year medical student interested in Internal Medicine and Psychiatry. She grew up in Chapel Hill and attended University of Michigan as an undergrad. Her goal is to provide healthcare for underserved and misunderstood patients and continue working in the global health sphere, specifically in Latin America. She also plans to continue her passion outside of the clinic to address the social drivers of health as it pertains to environmental justice and food security.

Georgina Fierro Keene

Georgina Fierro Keene, PA-C, MHS, grew up in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, across the border from El Paso, Texas. She came to Durham to attend the Duke Physician Assistant Program and stayed in the area after marrying one of her classmates (Mike). Georgina has worked in women’s health locally for over two decades, most recently in the Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine at Duke. She did her undergraduate studies at Stanford University and received a Master of Health Science from Duke. While in Divinity School, Georgina is continuing in her role as Clinical Services Director at Pregnancy Support Services of Durham and Chapel Hill, a local Christian nonprofit.

Hadley Reid

Hadley Reid is in her fourth year at Duke completing her MD and a Master’s in clinical research with the Duke Clinical Research Training Program (CRTP). She is originally from Chapel Hill, but did her undergrad at Stanford University before working at a non-profit in Seattle and ultimately returning home to the Triangle for medical school. Her research centers on examining the patient-provider interaction and its differential effect on health outcomes in non-Hispanic Black and White patients with Type II Diabetes. She is one of the founders and current leaders of Duke Med for Social Justice (DMSJ) and also serves as a student facilitator for the Cultural Determinants of Health and Health Disparities Course for first year medical students.

Hengming Li

Hengming Li is a first year ECE Ph.D. student working with Professor Maiken Mikkelsen on nanophotonic devices for quantum information. He received his joint undergraduate-master’s degree from Appalachian State University, and worked with Professor Francois Amet on solid state physics research. One fun fact about the research: a rainbow plot in a paper they submitted to Nature Physics ended up on the magazine’s cover page this summer. As a member of the LGBTQ community, he was overjoyed when he received the news. He got to enjoy a lot of outdoor activities like skiing, snowboarding, archery, and hiking during his time at Appstate. He also enjoys learning and creating music, as well as experimenting with cooking and baking in his free time. He was a founding member of a student inclusive excellence group at Appstate; so he hopes to gain more knowledge about inclusion, diversity, and racial justice, as well as to connect with other passionate people on the topics via this fellowship opportunity.

Ife Michelle Presswood

Ife Michelle Presswood (Charlotte, NC) is an MFA student in the Embodied Interdisciplinary Praxis in Dance Program. Her research, centered at the intersection of Dance, Race and Humanities, aims to investigate the performance of the embodied identities/realities of Black Women Artists and how these embodiments are expressed using art. Through the lens of dance, she analyzes inner and inter corporeality’s of Black Women Artists through choreographic works and curated methodology in order to demonstrate and vivify the need for effective safe spaces (contextualized through misogynoir) and its accompanying attributes: i.e. resources, opportunities, safety/empathy, care and quality training, that allows for valuing, vivification, fluidity and self-autonomy of Black Woman and their artistry.

Jack Brooks

Jack Brooks is a 5th-year PhD candidate in clinical psychology. She researches strategies for improving the effectiveness of digital health interventions, in order to improve access to healthcare and reduce health disparities.

Jacquie Ayala

Jacquie is a 2nd year Masters of Public Policy student at the Sanford School of Public Policy. She has 9 years of experience working as a community organizer on climate, environmental, and energy policy. She graduated from Eckerd College in 2010 with a degree in Environmental Studies. She’s worked to organize young people around climate change at the Southern Energy Network, mobilized voters for local, state, and federal elections while working at the NC Sierra Club, and most recently on energy policy and poverty at the NC Justice Center. Jacquie hopes to pursue a concentration in social policy while at Sanford.

Jake Silver

Jake Silver is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Cultural Anthropology. His dissertation project examines the atmospheric and extraplanetary scales of Israel’s occupation, lifting attention upward to the ways colonial and anticolonial conflicts extend vertically into outer space through domains such as astronomy, astrophysics, science fiction, meteorology, and space travel. For the past two years, he has conducted ethnographic work largely with Palestinian astronomers attending to the ways that something as seemingly simple as the sky is a site of powerful political struggle and (possible) transformation. His prior and current work is motivated by antiracist and anticolonial convictions, and he is passionate about the political potential of anthropological thinking when its methodology and pedagogy is rooted in solidarity and social justice.

Jasmine Young

Jasmine Young is a first-year student in the MS in Interdisciplinary Data Science Program. She is originally from Wilmington, North Carolina and graduated in the spring from Princeton University with an Operations Research & Financial Engineering degree. She is passionate about applying data science methods to racial and social issues.

Jason Lee

Jason Lee was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area and will be entering his first year of the Daytime MBA program at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business. He previously worked in the industries of sales compensation and public accounting.

Khanh Vien

Khanh Vien (She/her/hers) is a queer Vietnamese-Cantonese American PhD graduate student in biology. She was born in Vietnam, to parents who were Vietnamese boat people, then moved to East Oakland in California at the age of two. Khanh is a first generation PhD student, poet, activist, community builder, and prolific mentor. At Duke, she established her program’s inaugural Diversity and Inclusion committee, presented and curated a workshop for the national oSTEM (a LGBTQ in STEM professions group) conference, as well as pushing for diversity and inclusion while being on the program’s recruitment committee. Khanh's research revolves around understanding how the brain shapes itself and what cues are required to organize neural circuits. She uses the fly olfactory system to understand how multi-level combinatorial codes that mold the brain and affects olfactory function. She hopes to one day uncover the mechanism behind the teratological effects of Agent Orange and mitigate the number of casualties.

Malcolm Smith Fraser

Malcolm Smith Fraser is a proud Jamaican American in his first year of the SSRI’s data science MS program. While originally from the DMV, he now calls the Seattle area home. He received his BS in biomedical engineering from California Polytechnic in San Luis Obispo in 2019. Recently, he was part of a team of consultants doing very exciting work around racial equity in the city of Fresno, California, and he looks forward to building on and sharing what he learned as a Race and the Professions Fellow.

Ofelia Lopez

Ofelia Lopez is a PhD student in the Romance Studies department. Her research focuses on the relationship among race, blackness and literary discourse. Ofelia´s doctoral dissertation, After of the Skin: Representations of Race in Post-independent Cuban Literature, addresses the ways in which race is named and problematized in Cuban literary texts of the Republic, the Revolution and the Special Period. She is also interested in the intersectional relations among history, gender and subalternity.

Raymond L. Allen

Raymond Allen (he/him/his) is an Indigenous American scientist who grew up on his tribe’s reservation in Northern Wisconsin, and is a PhD candidate in the Duke Biology Department. Ray’s research focus is on early embryo development, and is minoring in Science & Society. Outside of lab, he is heavily involved in inclusion, diversity, equity, and anti-racism (IDEA) in STEM as a BioCoRE Scholar, through Duke’s SACNAS chapter, and the Biology graduate student IDEA committee. Feel free to follow his Instagram (@ray.l.allen) or Twitter (@Ray_L_Allen) to see his posts on science outreach, and Native & LGBTQIA+ topics!

Siri Russell

Siri Russell is a first-year student in the weekend executive MBA program. Her formal educational background includes an undergraduate degree in Sociology and a master's degree in Community & Economic Development. Siri's commitment to equity is demonstrated by her professional experience which includes her current role as the director of equity and inclusion for Albemarle County, VA where she leads efforts to ensure equity is centered in program and service delivery. She also serves on multiple nonprofit and community task force geared towards promoting social and financial resiliency.

Sonia Nelson

Sonia is a second-year dual degree student i.e. MEM/MBA. She is interested in a career focused on building sustainable business models, managing ESG risks as well as crafting climate mitigation and adaptation strategies for private sector organizations. Prior to school, she worked as a financial risk consultant at KPMG serving clients majorly in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Taimur Kouser

Taimur Kouser is a first year Masters student in the Bioethics & Science Policy program. He graduated in May 2020 from Harvard University with a joint degree in neuroscience and philosophy and a language citation in Modern Standard Arabic. Taimur is passionate about the intersections of a variety of fields including medicine, law, ethics, philosophy, and more. He cares deeply about the Muslim community and wants to explore the issues that they face and their roots in more depth and learn how to effectively educate others about them. He is especially eager to address issues through a sociocultural, instead of political, lens. He is looking forward to a year of learning, community building, and growth.

Unique Whitehurst

Unique Whitehurst is from Long Beach, CA. She is a member of the Duke University School of Nursing’s ABSN class of 2020 and MSN class of 2023. Upon accepting admission to DUSON, Unique was selected as a Health Equity Academy II Scholar which involves promoting diversity in nursing and leadership. Prior to coming here to Duke, she graduated with honors from South Carolina State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology and chemistry. After matriculating from my undergraduate institution, she held positions in the psychiatric/mental health setting at Del Amo Behavioral Health Facility and in the emergency medicine setting at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. Supplementary to my primary work in these settings, she was heavily involved with community youth populations through endeavors which included teaching in a STEM pipeline program hosted by the Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science. Currently, she is a member of the “Closing the Gap on Hypertension” Bass Connections Project team, mentor in the Women and Math Mentoring program, executive board member of DUSON’s Active Minds organization, member of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, and volunteer for the VA Healthcare System.

Vani Yadav

Vani Yadav is an international graduate student from India in the Duke Medical Physics program. Vani is interested in advancement of medical imaging technology and works in the Magnetic Resonance engineering laboratory in the Duke-UNC Brain Imaging and Analysis Center. Her research involves developing RF/shimming coils for pre-clinical small animal imaging. She hopes to work in the field of MR engineering and neuroimaging in the long term. Apart from cool physics applications to healthcare, Vani is passionate about gender and social equality.