Living/Learning Community
The Kenan LLC is an intentionally designed residential community for students interested in conversations, practices, experiments, and group and personal reflections that address the problem of ethical living in contemporary society.
Theme
This year’s theme is Ethics & Alienation: Establishing Connection Amidst Disconnection.
The food we eat is grown and prepared by people we likely will never meet. The goods we buy are assembled mysteriously across global assembly lines. Our personhood is shaped by the pressures of a competitive job market. And even the seasons of our circadian rhythms are treated as things to be conquered or ignored.
Ordinary disconnections such as these abound within our daily lives. We are alienated from the people whose labors reproduce our lives. We are separated from a sense of our belongingness to the natural world. We are denied the uncategorizable richness of our own multiplicity. We are distracted from the realities of how our wealth is built. We are disillusioned of the feasibility of the better worlds we might dare to dream. These and other alienations are the ground upon which we are asked to ethically act in the technologically advanced world we live.
As a thought experiment, might we ask: What ethics follow from a foundation of disconnection? How does disconnection feel? How does disconnection think? By contrast, we might also ask, what ethics follow from the experience of connection? How does connection feel? How might connection think?
LIVING
Students live together on the second floor of Few HH in the heart of Duke University’s West Campus. The LLC organizes a variety of low-pressure, social and intellectual opportunities (dinners, outings, game nights, etc.) to intentionally build a sense of community around questions of living ethically individually, collectively, and as part of a larger community beyond Duke. The use of common spaces for gathering in the dorm is encouraged; common spaces in Few include the Few HH Second Floor common room, the nearby Few Tower in House GG, and an outdoor courtyard space with seating.
LEARNING
ETHICS 211
Ethics & Alienation: Establishing Connection Amidst Disconnection
Instructor: Hayes
This Fall 2026 course is limited to students in the Kenan LLC and is required for incoming members.
Ethics 211 is a collaborative course, co-led by Kenan LLC Faculty Director Shannan Hayes and Kenan LLC students. About a third of the class sessions will be led by Hayes and about two thirds will be led by the students.
Hayes will provide foundational content to help anchor the course’s theme. Topics connected to the theme may include readings on care ethics, ecology, the concept of alienation, and critical analysis of contemporary work society.
On the first day of class, Kenan LLC students will build out the syllabus, adding the contemporary ethical challenges they’re interested in.
Student-led sessions will offer students the opportunity to propose pressing topics and build stronger relations of trust amongst the group. In this way, the class will attempt to both think about and practice the project of building connection amidst disconnections of various kinds.
Student participants will have ample room to contribute their own ethical interests and concerns through curated readings and student-led discussion.
COMMUNITY
There are many opportunities for students to contribute to the Ethics LLC community, either by joining planning committees or attending peer-planned events.
- Social and Service Committees plan monthly gatherings in the dorm (cookie decorating, “Cocoa & Conversation,” Open Door days, etc); monthly dinners off campus; enrichment field trips to local sites such as the Eno River, the Nasher Museum of Art, the Farmer’s Market, local bookstores, etc; and monthly service volunteer days at the Duke Campus Farm.
- Special Event Committees work collaboratively on our bi-annual Kenan LLC special events, especially the public-facing “Really Really Free Market” and the “Ethics in the Professions” chats with invited speakers.
- Check-In Dinners help guide participants into practices of generatively addressing difficult topics and taking active agency in their LLC/college experience. These are held once per semester and facilitated by the Faculty Director.
- The Recruitment Committee hosts events for incoming members, welcoming them into the culture of the Kenan LLC with an eye toward building a robust, dynamic, flexible and ongoing legacy for the program.
- Matchmaking Dinner Dates are (platonic!) opportunities to get to know more members of the LLC. These are offered once a month; LLC members can sign up to join.
As the Kenan Ethics LLC continues to flourish and adapt to the times we’re living in, we are committed to help foster substantial relationships within the Duke student body through on-campus events, intentional service engagements, and off-campus outings throughout the year.
ANNUAL TRIP
The LLC offers an annual trip to its members, usually taking place over Winter Break before the start of the spring semester. Recent destinations include Puerto Rico, New York City, and Miami. This year’s trip will align with the theme of cultivating skills & awareness around practices of social reproduction and ethical living.
CONTACT
Have a question about the LLC? Contact us at KenanLLC@duke.edu!
Keep up with LLC members by following @dukekenanllc on Instagram!
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