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The new John Hope Franklin Center for
Interdisciplinary and International Studies
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The successful university in the 21st century will emphasize problem-driven,
multi-disciplinary, and interdisciplinary research and training.
Much is already happening at Duke across departments to break down
the traditional linear, compartmentalized vision of science, social
sciences, and humanities, but we must continue to strengthen our
efforts to develop this advantage to the fullest. By promoting broad-ranging
programs, we will position ourselves in the center of the most dynamic
academic areas while maximizing our investments in faculty and facilities.
Our students will also be beneficiaries of this multi-disciplinary
perspective as it better reflects the environments in which most
of them will spend their working lives.
Several of our most exciting programs cut across the university,
from the Nicholas School of the
Environment and Earth Sciences and The
Sanford Institute of Public Policy to the Institute
for Care at the End of Life and the nascent Institute
for Genomic Sciences and Policy. Our bioengineering program
is expanding significantly. We plan a broad program in neuroscience
and neuroengineering, accompanied by a reorganization of the Department
of Psychology-Experimental into the Department
of Brain and Psychological Sciences. In order to capitalize
on our breadth and depth in environmental policy, law, social sciences,
and related fields across the university, we have created a new
Center for Environmental
Solutions. In parallel with the new Initiative in Global Change,
the center will enable a new level of analysis of environmental
problems not available previously on this scale. Environmental issues
are among the paramount challenges of the future, and, at the same
time, they are topics in which Duke University can attain status
as a world leader.
The John Hope Franklin
Center for Interdisciplinary and International Studies, dedicated
in February, gathers humanists, interpretive social scientists,
and artists to bring comparative, philosophical, and historical
perspectives to bear on race, equity, globalization, and other critical
issues of our time. The
Center for French and Francophone Studies, for instance, is
based at the JHF Center and sponsored in part by the French government.
It serves as a catalyst for encouraging the study of French culture
across campus and throughout the region. The JHF Center is becoming
a global meeting place for scholars and students around the world,
both actual and virtual via the Internet. Thanks to the center’s
sophisticated videoconferencing capabilities, for example, students
in cultural anthropologist Lee Baker’s “Race, Racism,
and Democracy” seminar were able to interview in real time
the authors of six books they read.
Integration of the Arts
 Aerial
view of a model of the new Nasher Museum of Art, designed
by world-renowned architect Rafael Viñoly
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This year, the 25-year-old Program in Drama became the Department
of Theater Studies, following a two-year process initiated by
drama faculty. The establishment of the Department of Theater Studies
is an important milestone for faculty, students, alumni, and supporters
of theater, signifying for many that theater is now a fully-embraced
academic discipline in which faculty may now gain tenure. As a consequence
of the emerging direction of this new department, stronger collaborations
are developing with faculty in the humanities at Duke. Over the
past year, four professors in classical studies, English, literature,
and romance studies have received secondary appointments in theater
studies.
The Nasher
Museum of Art at Duke University, named for the family of Raymond
D. Nasher, its leading benefactor, and scheduled for completion
in 2003, will stand as a symbol of the university’s commitment
to the arts as an integral part of a Duke liberal arts education.
Genomics
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Elizabeth Kiss, associate professor of the practice of political science
and philosophy and director of the Kenan Institute for Ethics, is a member
of the steering committee for the Center for Genome Ethics, Law and Policy
and a faculty participant in the FOCUS program Humanitarian Challenges at
Home and Abroad, an interdisciplinary small-group experience for first-year
students wishing to learn about the many humanitarian challenges facing the
world today.
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The genomics revolution that is currently underway will undoubtedly
transform clinical medicine, agriculture, environmental management,
and essentially all fields of applied science on which biology has
an impact. Duke launched the $200 million Institute
for Genome Sciences and Policy in fall of 2000. This institute
brings together investigators and scholars from a wide array of
disciplines, including those in the schools of medicine, arts and
sciences, engineering, environment, law, and divinity. The institute
comprises five centers: the Center
for Genome Ethics, Law and Policy, which assesses the social
and ethical dimensions of the genome revolution; the Center
for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, which develops
new tools to cope with the enormous complexity of the data generated
in genomic research, and interacts closely with the Center
for Genome Technology, a collaboration between arts and sciences,
medicine, and engineering. The
Center for Human Disease Models aims to make the mouse a much
more effective surrogate for human disease research. The Center
for Human Genetics has been created by the medical school to
provide core resources and expertise in study design, database management,
family and patient ascertainment, and statistical and molecular
analysis necessary to carry out large-scale genetic analysis of
human patient populations.
In addition, Duke has growing involvement in this area with other
institutions in the Triangle, and dialogue is underway with North
Carolina State University, the North
Carolina Supercomputer Center, theNorth
Carolina Biotechnology Center, and the National
Institute of Environmental and Health Sciences. Duke is also
a leading member of the North Carolina
Genomics & Bioinformatics Consortium, an organization that
is coordinating efforts throughout the state to develop genome sciences.
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