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Kenan announces new group of Graduate Fellows

The Kenan Institute for Ethics has selected 15 Duke graduate students as its 2017-2018 Graduate Fellows.

This year’s group of students represent six different schools/faculties and seven departments from across Duke’s Trinity College of Arts & Sciences. They bring a vast array of methodological tools and experiences – from biblical and literary scholarship to economic and psychological analysis. As Fellows at the Kenan Institute for Ethics, each shares a common interest in understanding how the world works, and will explore ways in which it can be reformed and improved.

As part of their fellowship with Kenan, the group will meet for seminars and workshops in the fall and spring semesters to share dissertation research and provide each other with fresh interdisciplinary feedback. These seminars are organized and facilitated by Wayne Norman, Mike & Ruth Mackowski Professor of Ethics, and Amber Díaz Pearson, Research Scholar at the Institute. The seminars often feature visiting speakers drawn from the current Fellows’ suggestions.

This year’s collection of graduate students and dissertation topics include:

  • Sarah Jean Barton, Divinity – intellectual disability, theological anthropology, and baptismal practices within diverse faith communities.
  • Eladio Bobadilla, History – immigrant rights movements from 1954 to 2004.
  • Hannah Bondurant, Philosophy – how others inform/transform one’s sense of self and identity.
  • Emma Davenport, English – contract in Victorian literature.
  • Joshua Doyle, Sociology – influence of cultural embeddedness on environmental attitudes.
  • Jae Yun Kim, Management and Organizations, Fuqua – justifying functions of self-help ideology.
  • Anyi Ma, Management and Organizations, Fuqua – conceptualization of agency for gender and leadership.
  • Emily Pechar, Environmental Policy – how identity salience can generate bipartisan support for climate change policies.
  • Christine Ryan, Law – feminist human rights-based approach to abortion law and politics.
  • Bailey Sanders, Political Science – gender stereotypes and regulation of assisted reproduction technologies.
  • Valerie Soon, Philosophy – social norms and practices that create and perpetuate social injustice.
  • Jacob Soule, Literature – contemporary fiction and urban crisis.
  • Jan P. Vogler, Political Science – emergence of public bureaucracies and the emergence of modern administrative organizations.
  • Laurel Wheeler, Economics – local labor demand shock and how land tenure affects economic development.
  • Emma Xiaolu Zang, Public Policy – property rights upon divorce and intra-household allocation of resources from divorce reform in China.

Fellows receive a stipend of $3,000 that supplements their current funding.