Who We are

Moran Anisman-Razin works with the Bass Connections project on the prevention of sexual misconduct on university campuses. Her research focuses on leadership, courage, and gender in organizations. Originally from Israel, Moran holds a BA in psychology and sociology and anthropology from Tel Aviv University, and a PhD in organizational and social psychology from bar Ilan University.

moran.anisman.razin@duke.edu
919-668-7653

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Michael Grigoni works with faculty leads and graduate students on a range of the Institute’s programs and initiatives, from the Religions and Public Life initiative to the Lab for Social Choreography. He also teaches courses for undergraduates, including The Challenges of Living an Ethical Life. With research interests spanning Christian ethics, political theology, and ethnographic theology, his current project develops a Christian ethics of handgun ownership that emerges from ethnographic fieldwork he carried out with Christian handgun owners and Christian anti-gun violence activists in North Carolina. He holds a BA in Philosophy from Western Washington University, an MA in Ethnomusicology from the University of Washington, an MTS in Theology from Harvard Divinity School, and a PhD in Religion from Duke University.

michael.grigoni@duke.edu
919-613-6366

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Katherine Jo works with The Purpose Project, developing and facilitating programs for graduate and professional school students, including the Race and the Professions and GradEngage Fellowships. Her scholarly interests include philosophies of liberal learning, pedagogy for ethical formation, and faculty vocational identity. She has previously worked in career development, undergraduate advising, and faculty development. She holds a BA in Sociology from Harvard University, an MA in Philosophy of Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a PhD in Philosophy of Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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Mari Jørstad provides support for Facing the Anthropocene, a project under the Ethics and Environmental Policy program area. She is originally from Norway and spent a decade in Canada, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in art & art history and political science and an MA in religion before coming to Duke to work toward a PhD studying the Hebrew Bible.

mari.jorstad@duke.edu
919-668-7652

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John Rose is Associate Director of the Arete Initiative. In addition to helping coordinate Arete’s programming, John teaches courses in Happiness and Human Flourishing, Christian Ethics, Conservatism, and Political Polarization. His research concerns the tradition of virtue ethics and Christian theology. Originally from Iowa, John holds a BA in religion from Wabash College, an MTS from Duke Divinity School, and a PhD in Theology from Princeton Theological Seminary.

john.rose@duke.edu
919-660-3180

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Tra Tran is the Program Director of the Human Rights Center. She manages two vertically integrated research programs, the Kenan Refugee Project (KRP) and the Last Girl Project (LGP). KRP examines the contemporary dynamics of displacement, working with refugee and asylum seeking communities globally. LGP focuses on examining the drivers of domestic minor sex trafficking, working to understanding this problem to inform policies on all levels of governance.  

Tra started working with the Kenan Institute for Ethics as an undergraduate, traveling to Jordan collecting life stories with refugees through the Duke Immerse program in 2014. After graduating Duke with a double major in psychology and cultural anthropology, she worked as a research associate for KRP and completed a master’s of science at DGHI before returning to the Kenan Institute as the Program Director of the Human Rights Center. She’s interested in the intersections of trauma, child development, resilience, governance, and resilience on all levels of life, from the individual to the multi-lateral. 

Lauren Valentino is a sociologist affiliated with the Worldview Lab and a co-leader of a Bass Connections project that aims to increase the representation of girls and women in the STEM fields. Her research uses a culture and cognition approach to understand how people form beliefs about inequality and social hierarchies in the United States. She has a bachelors degree in sociology and French studies from Wesleyan University, and recently earned her PhD in sociology from Duke University.

https://laurenvalentino.org