SUPPORTING ETHICS IN THE EXPERIMENTAL/DOCUMENTARY ARTS
The Graduate Arts Fellowship supports the generation and exhibition of ethics-oriented work at the leading edge of documentary practice. Offered to one student entering their second year of Duke’s MFA|EDA program, the fellowship offers resources, mentorship, and opportunities for engagement with the faculty, fellows, staff, and students at the Kenan Institute for Ethics over the course of an academic year.
Responsibilities for the fellowship include curation of an exhibition and associated programming during the spring semester, engagement with undergraduates during the fall and spring semesters, and serving as a judge for Team Kenan’s annual What Is Good Art? visual art competition in late spring.
The Graduate Arts Fellowship comes with a $5,000 stipend (paid in the fall and early spring) that supplements any other funding the student is already receiving. Fellows who produce exhibits of especially high distinction are eligible for the the Graduate Arts Fellow Distinguished Art in Ethics Award, determined at the end of the year.
For more information, contact Christian Ferney.
PAST KENAN GRADUATE ARTS FELLOWS
2018-2019: Felicity Palma
Felicity Palma presented Zyz, a film photography and short video exhibit that explores the influence of the Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, Moors, Normans, and Spaniards in the “world’s most conquered city”, Palermo, Sicily.
2017-2018: Rachel Jessen
Jessen presented an exhibition comprised of her photography along with found objects documenting the complicated moral narratives of Yarders, the term for those who participate in organized backyard wrestling in the American Southeast.
2016-2017: Salima Al-Ismaili
Al-Ismaili presented Nests of the Nu Ahong, a multimedia exhibition visiting nusi – women’s mosques – in China’s Henan province and the community of Hui Muslim minorities they serve.
2015-2016: Alex Cunningham
Cunningham presented Shifting Water: Lenses on Mythology and Environmental Change in India, a multimedia exhibition examining the impact of global climate change on the sacred rivers of India.
2014-2015: Aaron Kutnick
Kutnick created new works for an exhibition entitled Docu{rithm} at the Kenan Keohane Gallery examining how algorithms shape our narratives.
2013-2014: Caitlin Margaret Kelly
Kelly curated The Icon Industry: The Visual Rhetoric of Human Rights in the fall of 2013 and also worked with undergraduates on an interactive project around global migration, #Migrations.
