Opportunities

Current Opportunities

For Undergraduates at Duke, NCCU, NC State and UNC-Chapel Hill

John Hope Franklin Student Documentary Awards

The Center for Documentary Studies is offering a Summer 2024 funding opportunity for documentary fieldwork and research. CDS makes awards of up to $2,000 available to undergraduates attending Triangle-area universities to help them conduct sustained work on summer-long documentary fieldwork projects. Learn more and apply by April 1.

For External Applicants

Lehman Brady Visiting Professor in Documentary Studies and American Studies

The Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University and the Department of American Studies at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill invite applications for the 2024-2026 Lehman Brady Visiting Joint Chair Professorship. The professorship, open as to rank, provides an innovative artist, writer, documentarian or scholar a two-year position. Applicants are invited to attend drop-in virtual office hours and pose questions through the anonymous Q&A feature on March 1 and March 18. Learn more and apply by March 27.

The Bill and Lorna Chafe Postdoctoral Fellowship in Oral History and Social Justice

Duke’s Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) and History Department invite applications for a two-year postdoctoral fellowship from scholars no more than two years out from the receipt of the Ph.D. whose research is rooted in historical analysis, who engage with questions about social equity in both research and teaching, and who have strong grounding in the methods and practice of oral history. Learn more and apply by April 1.

Recent Opportunities

Full Frame Fellows 2024

All Duke undergraduates were eligible to apply. The Full Frame Fellows Program is aimed at educating, motivating and nurturing students. Along with screening films, fellows have the opportunity to network with documentary filmmakers and seek advice that can apply to their own careers. The deadline was March 8, 2024.

Course Development Grants

The Center for Documentary Studies invited grant applications from Duke regular-rank faculty members to support the development or redesign of undergraduate courses, or the redesign of existing undergraduate courses, framed around documentary studies, broadly conceived. Areas of focus might include videography and documentary film, photography, podcasting and other modes of audio documentary, oral history, more experimental media and other digital practices. The deadline was December 11, 2023. See recipients.

Research Seed Grants

CDS invited grant applications from Duke regular-rank faculty members to seed new research undertakings related to documentary studies, broadly conceived. Areas of focus might include videography and documentary film, photography, podcasting and other modes of audio documentary, oral history, more experimental media and other digital practices. The deadline was December 11, 2023. See recipients.

DocX Development Lab–Otherwise Histories, Otherwise Futures

CDS’s DocX initiative is launching a new lab to support artists and researchers whose archival practices, documentary art practices and scholarship seek to explore the history and possibility of living, thinking, being and sensing otherwise. The deadline was November 27, 2023. See recipients.

Documentary Studies Ph.D. Fellowships

The Center for Documentary Studies has funds to support a small number of Ph.D. student fellows for the fall and spring of 2023-2024 to pursue research related to documentary studies. Duke Ph.D. students in any humanities or social science program, whose research engages with documentary studies, broadly conceived, were eligible to apply. The deadline was August 8, 2023. See recipients.