Sarah Rogers, Author at The Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University

First-Year Students Reflect on Benefits of Kenan-Affiliated FOCUS Programs

Posted on January 27, 2026 by Sarah Rogers

Students recently told The Chronicle that two Kenan-affiliated FOCUS clusters provided “hands-on learning” opportunities and a sense of “community” during their first semester at Duke.

FOCUS is a fall semester program for first-year undergraduate students. Students take two or more courses in a course cluster on a shared theme, live in the same dormitory, and attend weekly dinners or outings with program faculty.

Two FOCUS clusters are affiliated with Kenan: “Free for All: Freedom, Justice, and Citizenship” and “It’s Not Too Late to Build a Better World.”

First-year student Lily Oliver told The Chronicle that she enjoyed the “hands-on learning” experiences, trips to Duke Campus Farm and Duke Gardens, and talks from guest speakers in “It’s Not Too Late to Build a Better World.”

A group of students poses in Washington, D.C. — The Kenan-affiliated FOCUS cluster “Free for All: Freedom, Justice, and Citizenship” offers students the chance to travel to Washington, D.C. in the fall. First-year Nigel Cooper praised FOCUS as a way to “get a community and make friends.” Photo credit: Dagny Edison.

While Nigel Cooper found the classes in “Free for All: Freedom, Justice, and Citizenship” to be more rigorous than he expected, he said he was able to build community during the program due to its shared living space and a weekend trip to Washington, D.C.. “Most of them are still my friends going into the second semester,” Cooper said.

This year, the new Trinity College of Arts & Sciences curriculum requires students to either participate in a FOCUS cluster or a new program called Constellations, in which they take three courses on a related theme, including Writing 120, during the fall and spring semesters.

While students have noted that this new requirement can lead to some difficulties with class scheduling, Cooper pointed out that there are benefits to it as well.

“If Duke didn’t have a curriculum, most students wouldn’t be able to become exposed to most of the classes Duke has to offer,” Cooper said.

To read the full article, visit The Chronicle.

An Inspiring Gift to Help Students Grow

Posted on January 12, 2026January 14, 2026 by Sarah Rogers

The Kenan Institute for Ethics has received a major gift to support undergraduate programs.

Danielle Moore T’85 has pledged a $5 million gift from the Mary Alice Fortin Foundation, the family foundation of which she is president, to support the institute’s educational initiatives for students.

Three students sit at a picnic table overlooking a beautiful view — Students participate in civic engagement programs around the world — including Kampala, Uganda, pictured above — through DukeEngage, a program of the Kenan Institute for Ethics. Dani Moore’s gift will support additional offerings focusing on undergraduates. Photo courtesy of Ashwin Gadiraju.

Moore, who goes by “Dani” (pronounced “Donny”), is the mayor of Palm Beach, Florida. As a Duke alum, she has long been passionate about enhancing the student experience at the university. A supporter and former advisory board member of DukeEngage, a Kenan Institute for Ethics program that offers civic engagement opportunities for undergraduates with community partners all over the world, she says she is especially interested in students talking to and learning from people who are different from them.

“The foundation has a commitment to fostering dialogue,” Moore said.

Through the Fortin Foundation, Moore has also supported Bass Connections, a unique interdisciplinary program that allows Duke undergraduates to work with faculty and graduate students on research projects addressing urgent social concerns.

David Toole, Nannerl O. Keohane Director of the Kenan Institute for Ethics, says that ethics and character formation are a primary focus of the institute’s work with undergraduates. As an example, he points to a new program launched this year, Capacious Minds, which encourages students to think outside of ideological divides and instead approach problems through the co-creation of wildly imaginative spaces.

Two students moving in tandem in a dance studio — Two Capacious Minds Fellows participate in a movement exercise. Part of the larger Capacious Minds initiative, this two-semester fellowship aims to help undergraduate students develop “capacious minds” through experiential practices that include open-ended and non-linear modes of engagement like play, embodied movement, and the cultivation of wonder through the observation of the natural world. Photo credit: Summer Steenberg.

“Building and scaling programs like Capacious Minds is the kind of thing we envision Dani’s funding helping us accomplish,” Toole said.

To read the full story on Moore and the history of the Fortin Foundation, visit MADE FOR THIS: The Duke Campaign website.

Announcing Teaching on Purpose Fellows

Posted on January 8, 2026January 13, 2026 by Sarah Rogers

The Kenan Institute for Ethics is pleased to announce the 2026 cohort of Teaching on Purpose fellows.

Teaching on Purpose brings doctoral students and faculty together to explore what it means to be a good teacher of undergraduates and to cultivate educational practices that will help their students flourish. It is a program of The Purpose Project at Duke, a collaboration between the Kenan Institute for Ethics, Duke Divinity School, and the Office of the Provost.

This year’s eighteen Teaching on Purpose fellows represent four Duke University schools — the Fuqua School of Business, the Graduate School, the Nicholas School of the Environment, and the Pratt School of Engineering — and 14 disciplines. As part of this unique, multidisciplinary community, fellows will meet weekly during the spring semester to explore fundamental questions about the purpose of college, learn how to engage students in meaningful learning, and gain insights from faculty.

West Duke Building Closed After Flooding

Posted on January 7, 2026January 8, 2026 by Sarah Rogers

Exterior shot of the West Duke Building
The Kenan Institute for Ethics’ primary home, the West Duke Building on Duke University’s East Campus, will be closed for the foreseeable future. This will allow for repairs of the damages caused by a burst water coil on December 15, 2025, when temperatures in Durham, North Carolina reached extreme lows.

Flooding mainly affected the northern side of the building, including KIE offices in West Duke 103 suite. Other KIE office suites, including the Fortin Family Foundation Director’s Suite, did not appear to sustain any damages.

While West Duke is expected to open again during the spring semester, the entire building will remain closed while damages are being evaluated and restoration plans assessed.

All classes in the West Duke Building, including Ethics courses, have been reassigned to other spaces on East Campus, and KIE staff will work remotely or in the East Duke Building, where the Kenan Institute for Ethics holds additional office space.

Call for Applications: Re-Imagining Medicine Fellowship

Posted on December 3, 2025January 20, 2026 by Sarah Rogers

What does it mean to be a good healthcare practitioner? How do we learn to care for people, not as containers of symptoms and illness, but as bearers of stories? How do we work for just, fair, humane, and equitable practices of health care? How do the arts, ethics, and history help us prepare to practice medicine with character and creativity, to develop a sense of meaning and purpose in our work, and to encourage and empower the communities we serve?

The Kenan Institute for Ethics invites first-, second-, and third-year undergraduates planning on working in health care to apply for a Re-Imagining Medicine Fellowship. The priority deadline is February 14, 2026.

PROGRAM

The Re-Imagining Medicine (ReMed) program is an interactive summer program for Duke pre-health students exploring the intersection of medicine and moral purpose. Students are invited to imagine how those working in health-related fields can use their specialized knowledge and skills with humility to care for individuals, cure and prevent disease and suffering, flourish in their chosen profession, collaborate with other professionals, and work toward the greater good.

ReMed seeks to foster the character, imagination, and practices needed to work effectively in contexts of human suffering and healing. Fellows will join with healthcare professionals and faculty from a variety of disciplines to develop practices and skills that will help them to attend closely to their own stories, to the stories of the places where they live and work, and to the stories of the communities they plan to serve. ReMed engages the medical humanities, including ethics, movement, history, visual arts, and expressive writing to help students explore themes often absent in traditional medical education.

ReMed is a program of The Purpose Project at Duke, a collaboration between the Kenan Institute for Ethics, Duke Divinity School, and the Office of the Provost. It is sponsored by a grant from The Duke Endowment.

COMMITMENT

The ReMed program has four primary components:

Immersive Week: The ReMed program begins the week following commencement with an on-campus immersive week at Duke in May. This immersive week will feature shared meals and conversation, experiential learning at Duke Hospital and Duke Regional Hospital, engagement with creative writing and the visual arts, introduction to the medical humanities, and facilitated reflections on justice and equity in health care.
Experiential Work/Service: ReMed is not a stand-alone program. To enable critical reflection on lived experiences and practices, Fellows are required to pair their participation in ReMed with an internship, employment, or service work related to health or health care over the summer. Fellows must arrange this parallel experience on their own. Practicum experiences must be at least twenty hours a week for eight weeks over the summer, and may include, but are not limited to:
- Volunteer service in a health-related setting
- Paid employment in a hospital, clinic, public health agency, or health-related company or nonprofit
- Formal Duke civic engagement or research programs, with permission from the directors of those programs
- Engagement in clinical research
Weekly Virtual Sessions: Following this week, ReMed will meet virtually for eight weeks. Fellows and faculty will gather for weekly 90-minute online seminars to reflect on their summer experiences and to engage in conversation with leading scholars and practitioners in the medical humanities. Readings, writing exercises, and reflective practices will be assigned between seminars. These seminars will take place on Zoom from 5:00-6:15 pm ET on Thursdays:
- May 21
- May 28
- June 4
- No meeting June 11
- June 18
- June 25
- No meeting July 2
- July 9
- July 16
- July 23
Fall ReMed Dinner Gathering: to reflect on and celebrate the summer ReMed cohort and student accomplishments.

ReMed Fellows are expected to participate fully in all components of the fellowship, including the entire immersive week, and to miss no more than one virtual Seminar.

ELIGIBILITY

If you are a current first-, second-, or third-year Duke undergraduate planning on working in health care and have interest in exploring questions of medicine and moral purpose, Reimagining Medicine (ReMed) invites you to apply for a Summer 2026 Fellowship today. The immersive week will take place May 10-15, 2026. Students should be available starting May 10, 2026 at 6pm through May 15, 2026 at 1pm. Full participation in immersive week activities is required for your application to be considered. The Reimagining Medicine Fellowship is limited to 20 students.

AWARD

For full participation in the Fellowship, Fellows will receive:
• Housing at The Lodge Hotel, located near the Duke School of Medicine (RAs and others with prior housing arrangements may opt out of the provided housing option), during the immersive week
• Meals throughout the immersive week
• $1000 honorarium

APPLY

The priority application deadline is February 14, 2026. After that time, applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until available spots are filled.

Apply Now

CONTACT

If you have questions about ReMed, please contact Proram Director, Warren Kinghorn or Program Coordinator, Victoria Yunez Behm.

Warren Kinghorn, MD, ThD
Faculty Director, Re-Imagining Medicine
Professor of Psychiatry, Duke University Medical Center
Esther Colliflower Professor of the Practice of Pastoral and Moral Theology, Duke Divinity School
warren.kinghorn@duke.edu

Victoria Yunez Behm, MS, MTS, CNS
ReMed Program Coordinator
victoria.behm@duke.edu

Photography Exhibit Explores “Coexistence” between Humans and Elephants in Thailand

Posted on November 18, 2025November 19, 2025 by Sarah Rogers

An exhibit of a Duke undergraduate student’s photography in the Keohane-Kenan Gallery in the West Duke Building depicts the fraught relationship between Thai pineapple farmers and the elephants who devour their crops.

As a Chelsea Decaminada Memorial Fellow — a program that offers DukeEngage alumni the opportunity to pursue an independent project abroad — Dhruv Rungta embarked on this photojournalism project in 2024 with the help of his mentors at the Duke Center for Documentary Studies, Susie Post-Rust and Chris Sims.

Titled “Coexistence,” Rungta’s photography depicts the people of Ruam Thai, a small village in Southern Thailand whose economy is heavily dependent on pineapple farming. The photographs also depict the elephants, who are lured out of the neighboring Kuiburi national park by the sweet smell of the pineapple. Elephants can easily destroy a year’s worth of crops by eating them and stomping on the young plants.

In order to protect their crops, villagers keep watch during the night. With the help of park rangers, they drive the elephants away with firecrackers and guns, pursuing them on motorbikes. These confrontations create dangerous situations for humans and elephants both.

But along with documenting this conflict, Rungta’s photographs also show how villagers are seeking to mediate it — either by planting different crops that don’t attract elephants, like lemongrass and chili peppers, or promoting ecotourism to the area, which diversifies income streams.

Exploring the relationship between humans and the environment — along with solutions for improving it — is a key driver of Rungta’s studies in Ecology, Economics, and Sustainable Development, a major he created through Program II. A recent Duke Today profile explores how Rungta’s path was shaped by his participation in DukeEngage Costa Rica and his Decaminada Fellowship.

Visitors are welcome to stop by the West Duke Building during business hours and see the exhibit, which runs until the end of the calendar year. Rungta has also recently published his photographs and an accompanying essay in Conservation Mag, an online publication dedicated to raising awareness of wildlife and nature.