May I have your attention please? An Invitation to Pause, Reflect, and Connect

September 8, 2026

Several people looking at a work of art in a museum

The Purpose Project at Duke is excited to invite faculty from all disciplines to “May I have your attention please? An Invitation to Pause, Reflect, and Connect,” a contemplative engagement with art at the Nasher Museum of Art or with nature at Duke Gardens.

PROGRAM

Amidst the frenzy to efficiently do, respond, solve, and achieve, this series invites you into a different mode of being: one that cultivates deep attention, wonder, and curiosity; allows for slow thought and leisurely learning; and ultimately nurtures meaning, joy, and hope in our lives. Programs will be held at the Nasher Museum of Art or Duke Gardens. During our time together, we will engage with one work of art or plant life, in conversation with each other and guided by a museum or Gardens educator.

Our theme this year is “human encounters.” Our interactions with nearly everything and everyone, including ourselves, are increasingly mediated by various digital technologies. Each program in this series invites us to attend to, and perhaps discover anew, the myriad human goods that are realized when we linger, look, and listen, with human minds and human hearts, within different dimensions of our experience.

Space is limited. Participants may attend ONE program at each location. If the event is full, please register to get on the waitlist. Spaces usually open up closer to the date.

Details and registrations links are below.

At the Nasher Museum of Art:

Friday, September 11, 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
People: What might a more attentive and human encounter with others reveal and restore?
Register here

Thursday, October 8, 4:00–5:00 p.m.
Places: How might attentiveness to a place change how we relate to and move through it?
Register here

Friday, November 13, 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Problems: How might simple acts of noticing change our perception and response to the problems in our world?
Register here

At Duke Gardens

Thursday, October 29, 4:00 p.m.–5:00 p.m.
Plant life: How might attentiveness to plants affect our understanding and experience of the world we inhabit, as well as ourselves?
Register here

Friday, November 9, 12:00 p.m.–1:00 p.m.
Plant life: How might attentiveness to plants affect our understanding and experience of the world we inhabit, as well as ourselves?
Register here

CONTACT

If you have any questions about this program, please contact Katherine Jo at katherine.jo@duke.edu.

Katherine Jo is the Director of Program Development and Design for The Purpose Project. In this role, she develops courses, programs, and pedagogy that engage students in questions of meaning, purpose, and character. In addition to teaching undergraduate courses, she leads programming for graduate and professional school students, including Teaching on Purpose, which prepares doctoral students for their future roles as educators, and is an instructor in the Program in Education. Katherine also leads workshops for faculty at and outside of Duke on teaching in ethically formative ways. Katherine serves on the Advisory Board of The Project on the Good Surgeon at Duke Medical School and has served on the Project Leadership Team of Yale University’s Life Worth Living Network. Her scholarly interests include philosophies of liberal learning, the place of leisure in education, and faculty vocational identity. She has previously worked in career development, undergraduate advising, and faculty development. She holds a B.A. in Sociology from Harvard University, an M.A. in Philosophy of Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in Philosophy of Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.