Creating something new with the tools of the old does not work. Our current systems are failing us. But what might a new, better system look like?
Regenerative Futures Lab (rLab) is the place where students collectively try to figure out how to navigate paths to a re-imagined future that prioritizes the well-being of humans and the planet.
rLab is seeking high-level thinkers, detail-oriented individuals, and all skillsets in between. Applicants should be reflective, thoughtful, curious, and collaborative.
Projects are semester-long commitments, with a stipend. All Duke undergraduate students are eligible to apply. The theme of Fall 2024 is What We Owe to Each Other, with a focus on Dignity. See below for project descriptions.
Dying with Dignity:
Researchers will take an ethnographic approach to explore what Duke students think about death and dying as well as the larger question “what is a dignified end-of-life?”. In a non-hierarchical cohort structure, researchers will host and participate in on-campus Death Cafes, interview cafe participants, and reflect on their own experience with their cohort.
Dignity for All:
The project seeks researchers who are both big-picture thinkers and detail-oriented executors to design and realize a semester-long, cradle-to-grave project addressing the question “What is necessary to lead a life with dignity?” The goal is to collect data around this question and ideate actionable strategies to foster a world where dignity is a right, not a privilege. The team will develop a measurable project idea and deliverable that identifies the elements of a dignified life and how we, as an individual and community member, may achieve it.
This article by Duke student Ahilan Eraniyan (T’27) was originally published in The Chronicle, a student-run news organization.
As part of a workshop with education professor David Malone, Shawn Kairu (left) and Myat Theingi discuss the principles of community engagement on the first day of “Gateway Summer School.” Photo Credit: Jalynn Woods/Trinity Communications.
In 2021, DukeEngage launched a Gateway program to encourage incoming first-year students to engage with their local communities through civic and community service.
Gateway students partner with an organization in their hometown for a summer-long project, working for a minimum of 100 hours over at least five weeks while routinely meeting virtually with peers and faculty to reflect on their involvement. Projects led by this year’s participants ranged from pediatric medical research to financial literacy initiatives and advocacy work around homelessness and food insecurity.
“Gateway … launches the Duke journey through the lens of community engagement, allowing incoming students to build meaningful connections before they even set foot on campus,” Associate Director of DukeEngage Inga Peterson wrote in an email to The Chronicle. “The experience not only honors their origins but also equips them to infuse a spirit of service and engagement into their future at Duke and beyond.”
Now in its fourth iteration, the program piloted an optional, in-person “Summer School” conference this year for participants to unite on campus.
The new Summer School offering — led by staff from DukeEngage and the Kenan Institute for Ethics — provided a three-day experience for students to travel to campus in June and learn about Durham-specific opportunities.
Students who attended the Summer School session were able to reflect on their summer projects while connecting with their peers and upperclassmen who participated in the Gateway program in previous years. According to Dagny Edison, Trinity ‘24 and program coordinator for the Kenan Institute, students also heard from Duke faculty and Durham community members in discussions concerning “the ethics of service” and “a unique model for community-based work.”
“By bringing participants together at the beginning of their summer experience, they were given the opportunity to connect with each other, Duke and Durham ahead of their arrival on campus in the fall,” Peterson wrote.
“Doing DukeEngage [Gateway] in the summer really showed me the kind of people that I would be meeting and just how cool, passionate, involved and great a lot of the people at Duke were.”
– Colin Belton T’26
Since the Gateway program began in 2021, 76 students have worked worldwide to “consider the responsibilities of citizenship, best practices in community-based collaboration and their own sense of purpose in the world.” Upon completion of the program, a quarter of students go on to pursue further involvement in DukeEngage programs during their time at Duke.
Senior Coral Lin worked on a Zoning Redesign project for the City of Newton, Massachusetts’ Planning Department in the Gateway program’s inaugural year.
“The Gateway program’s training and mentorship opportunities will not only help my work this summer but also help me develop effective strategies for advocating for social justice,” she said while participating in the program as an incoming freshman.
“I think [the Gateway program] inspired me to keep going down this path of being really interested in civic engagement,” Lin told The Chronicle in a recent interview. “[It] helped show this idea that what we should really be is in partnership and being the voices of the community rather than looking at this top-down philanthropic approach.”
Eric Mlyn, distinguished faculty fellow at the Kenan Institute for Ethics and founding executive director of DukeEngage until 2019, praised the Gateway program for introducing students to civic work at Duke.
“These students come in here knowing how they can get engaged at Duke University [and] in the Durham community,” Mlyn said. “That just gives them a little bit of an advance in that kind of engagement.”
Peterson said the program was inspired by Harvard University’s SPARK program, a similar public service initiative for incoming first-years at Harvard. Mlyn served on the SPARK program’s board and decided to introduce the concept to the DukeEngage team after “recogniz[ing] the profound impact such an initiative could have at Duke.”
“Given Duke’s longstanding commitment to the global public good and the existing infrastructure of DukeEngage, the choice to create a similar program seemed obvious,” Peterson wrote.
The program launched amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement, both of which “heightened questions of community, responsibility and citizenship and created a desire to work for good” among incoming students.
Sophomore Colin Belton, who worked with Patriot K9s of Wisconsin to train service dogs and educate the community about post-traumatic stress injury and other issues facing veterans, said his experience in the Gateway program helped ease his transition to college.
“Doing DukeEngage [Gateway] in the summer really showed me the kind of people that I would be meeting and just how cool, passionate, involved and great a lot of the people at Duke were,” Belton said.
He added that the guest speaker events, which focused on community engagement and altruism, were a highlight of the program.
Edison noted that students responded positively to the new Summer School offering, with some sharing in a feedback survey that they were excited to apply what they learned from the conference to their work with their local organizations.
In future years, both Peterson and Edison shared that the Gateway program plans to expand the Summer School experience and ensure that all students can participate in the conference. Around two-thirds of this year’s cohort was able to attend the event, with students traveling to Durham from their home states and countries.
Additionally, program staff aim to increase Gateway alumni involvement with DukeEngage and the Kenan Institute past the summer experience through field trips around Durham and other community engagement opportunities.
DukeEngage is seeking proposals for new faculty-led programs in the U.S. and abroad for Summer 2025. The deadline is Monday, August 26, 2024.
DukeEngage consists of 20+ eight-week, faculty-led summer programs, each enabling small groups of students and faculty to collaborate with a community to address critical societal needs through an immersive summer of community engagement.
DukeEngage is seeking new program proposals with a particular focus on the following areas: healthcare, food, engineering, the climate crisis, energy, environment, sustainability, racial equity, health and wealth disparities, civil discourse and democracy, urbanization, and the urban/rural divide. Programs can be located anywhere in the world, except for regions restricted by Duke. However, we are particularly interested in building a portfolio of programs based in Durham, other parts of North Carolina, and rural areas across the United States.
We strongly encourage proposals that intentionally create links between DukeEngage and Bass Connections or any of the expanding +Programs. These proposals should aim to establish groundwork by serving as precursors to DukeEngage programs or provide follow-up initiatives that build upon the experiences and outcomes of DukeEngage projects.
Proposals for a Summer 2025 program are due August 26th. For faculty wanting to explore the possibility of a program in Summer 2025 or Summer 2026, DukeEngage has site exploration funding for logistical research and relationship building with potential partners. We will entertain exploration grants up to $5,000 per program. Site exploration funds can be awarded at any time during the year. To apply for site exploration funds, please send a query to Inga.peterson@duke.edu.
The Basics
The average size of the cohort is 8 students.
The core of the program for students is full-time work with one or more community organizations for eight weeks. Some programs disperse students among multiple organizations, while others work as a team with one organization.
Each program begins with a mutually beneficial partnership between a faculty Program Director and one or more community organizations. Student work must be guided by the community and may consist of direct service, capacity building, or community-based research.
Work is accompanied by cultural immersion and regular, intentional critical reflection.
2025 programs can run between May 15 – August 15, 2025.
DukeEngage hires site coordinators to be on site for the full eight weeks. Faculty must spend at least the first two weeks on site; ideally
The program is fully funded for all participants. In addition to travel and living expenses, program budgets include a small allotment for cultural enrichment.
The DukeEngage Program Director role description and general timeline of responsibilities can be found here. Faculty compensation is provided in the form of a supplemental payment.
Additional program development considerations can be found here.
Proposals
We especially value programs that have one or more of the following characteristics:
Are in a location where there are currently no other repeating DukeEngage programs
Proposals should include:
Faculty director(s) + contact information
Location (city/community, state, country)
Theme(s) (see our website for examples; new themes are welcome)
How long the faculty director(s) envision(s) being on site beyond the first two weeks
Potential partner organizations
Potential full-time student projects/work
Brief description of the community
Your prior experience in the proposed community
Potential prerequisites (language, skills) or academic connections for students
We’re happy to serve as a sounding board as you consider a proposal. Send any questions you might have to Inga Peterson (inga.peterson@duke.edu) Once we receive your proposal, we will be in touch for more details.
Christine Folch at a Technical Visit of Itaipú Binational Dam (Brazil-Paraguay).
Christine Folch, Bacca Foundation Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology, has been appointed Peter Lange Director of DukeEngage.
DukeEngage is an immersive eight-week summer program that sends undergraduate students around the country and the world to work with communities addressing critical issues. Launched in 2007 and administered by the Kenan Institute for Ethics since 2019, the program has enrolled more than 5,500 students to date. DukeEngage projects take students into the field each summer to work on issues that community partners deem a priority. For many students, the program becomes a cornerstone of their Duke experience.
As a DukeEngage program director for the past five years, Folch brought students to a site where she has done extensive research — the Itaipú Hydroelectric Dam, an abundant source of renewable energy shared by Paraguay and Brazil. Under Folch’s guidance, DukeEngage students have immersed themselves in the complex challenges faced by Paraguay by working with organizations promoting education, civic engagement, conservation, and sustainable tech. In 2022 and 2023, students appeared on “En Contexto,” a national news program, to discuss their experiences in the program and their research on the country’s economic development.
With a proven record of engaging students in complex societal issues through immersive experiences, Folch will bring renewed focus to the leadership of DukeEngage after several years of transition, including disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The appointment of a Peter Lange Director of DukeEngage also coincides with the planned implementation of a new curriculum for Trinity College of Arts & Sciences in 2025. New requirements that integrate ethics and experiential learning into undergraduate education will create new opportunities for DukeEngage to impact the student experience, said David Toole, Nannerl O. Keohane Director of the Kenan Institute for Ethics.
“I’m excited to have Christine Folch stepping into this role,” said Toole. “She has directed a remarkable program in Paraguay and is a fantastic example of a new generation of faculty whose scholarship is inseparable from community-engaged research and teaching. She brings the perfect mix of intellectual depth and administrative acumen to DukeEngage and the Kenan Institute.”
“I see DukeEngage as one of the best examples of Duke’s leadership and innovation,” said Folch, “because from its very beginning, it offered every student the opportunity to go out into the world and have an immersive experience, learning from and working in a community. I’m looking forward to continuing and building on that legacy. I’m delighted to be part of it because I’ve seen — personally —the impact that DukeEngage has. It builds genuine connections between students, faculty, community partners and the Duke community as a whole.”
“As we continue to deepen our commitment to equitable, co-created community engagement across the university, there is a great opportunity for DukeEngage to deepen its links to curricular structures and other co-curricular programs,” said Ed Balleisen, Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Studies. “Christine Folch will bring incredible energy and a wealth of relevant experience to that effort.”
Folch earned her Ph.D. from the City University of New York in 2012 and arrived at Duke in 2015, after a stint at Wheaton College. She has a secondary appointment as associate professor of environmental sciences and policy in the Nicholas School of the Environment and has codirected the Amazon Lab and the Global Brazil Lab at the Franklin Humanities Institute. Her books include “Hydropolitics: The Itaipú Dam, Sovereignty, and the Engineering of Modern South America” (2019) and “The Book of Yerba Mate: A Stimulating History” (forthcoming), both from Princeton University Press.
Folch’s appointment follows an internal search by a faculty committee led by David Malone, professor of the practice of education and a longtime DukeEngage program director.
The DukeEngage directorship is named in honor of Peter Lange, Thomas A. Langford University Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Political Science, who served as Duke’s provost from 1999–2014. Lange was instrumental in creating the program and securing endowed gifts from The Duke Endowment and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that continue to provide DukeEngage with financial support.
CONTACT: Sarah Rogers sarah.rogers@duke.edu (919) 660-3035
DURHAM, N.C. – In its past seasons, the acclaimed podcast “Scene on Radio” has explored complex social issues like race, patriarchy, and democracy. But the new season premiering on June 26 is even more ambitious, focusing on a topic that its host John Biewen says is threaded through all its previous ones.
John Biewen
In its dozen-plus episodes, “Capitalism” unravels the history of our current economic system and speculates on its future — including whether or not it has one — on a planet with widening wealth gaps and ecological systems driven to the point of collapse.
Biewen, a journalist and audio producer, created “Scene on Radio” in 2015. In its second season, “Seeing White,” he began structuring the podcast around pressing social issues — and the ways they’re rooted in systems and ideologies constructed over centuries by people with power.
Despite how insurmountable these problems seem, “Scene on Radio” seeks to offer listeners new ways forward.
“More and more people — especially young people — are coming to see capitalism as the problem, not the solution,” says Biewen. “But for many folks who are unhappy about the current economic reality, there’s little sense of what an alternative might look like. My hope is that ‘Capitalism’ can contribute to a more informed and productive conversation about our economic system and the world we want to create together.”
Ellen McGirt
“This series is about values,” says Biewen’s co-host, Design Observer Editor in Chief Ellen McGirt. “We want everyone to be part of the conversation about what our economy should look like. That includes corporate leaders, many of whom are thinking about these issues, too.”
“Capitalism” interweaves interviews with experts, on-the-ground recordings, and Biewen and McGirt’s conversations into its sweeping storytelling. Through its carefully researched and immersing narrative, listeners learn how capitalism arose in a global context and how people have theorized, shaped, defended, and challenged it from its beginnings to the present day.
Biewen and McGirt say that it’s not possible to look at the state of capitalism today without wondering: “Is this the best we can do?” They conclude the season by exploring real-world alternatives to capitalism as we know it — from a reformed market economy to more radical models based on regenerative systems.
“Capitalism” is produced by the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University in partnership with Imperative 21. It premieres June 26, 2024, with new episodes dropping weekly.
“Scene on Radio” is available on all major podcast distribution platforms, including Apple, Spotify, Google, and Overcast.
Listen to the season trailer or view the video trailer below.
Video trailer by Gergo Varga. Imagery adapted into cover art by Harper Biewen.
Members of the America’s Hallowed Ground Bass pose in front of their table at the Fortin Foundation Bass Connections showcase. From left to right, curriculum designer Kendall Surfus, Duke University sophomore Irma Lopez, co-director Mike Wiley, Duke University Master of Public Policy student Crystal Card, and co-director Charlie Thompson. Photo credit: Sarah Rogers.
What do we mean when we say “hallowed ground”?
A signature program of the Kenan Institute for Ethics, America’s Hallowed Ground works with communities to tell the stories of sites connected to broader conflicts and struggles in American history. Often, these stories are about moments when America has fallen short of its ideals — like equality, justice, and democracy. In a term inspired by Lincoln’s Gettyburg Address, the sites are “hallowed” by the sacrifices of those who fought for these ideals — or were harmed by others’ attempts to subvert them.
One of these sites is in Wilmington, North Carolina, where white supremacists overturned the city government and massacred Black citizens in 1898. In a 2023 workshop, professional artists associated with America’s Hallowed Ground, including muralist Cornelio Campos, led Wilmington community members in unpacking the painful legacies of 1898 through painting, movement, song, visual arts, and writing.
Through a 2023–2024 Bass Connections project, which focuses on creating curricular materials, America’s Hallowed Ground hopes to help 7–12th grade students connect with local histories. As co-director Mike Wiley has noted, the arts are not only a powerful way of teaching us about the past: they help us to remember it. By taking part in virtual workshops, students can explore the meaning of historical sites in their own communities — deepening their connections to their homes, to our nation’s past, and, hopefully, to our nation’s future.
Watch the America’s Hallowed Ground Bass Connections Team talk about this project in the video below.
