Staci Grimes Receives Julia Harper Day Award for Documentary Studies

Duke senior Staci Grimes is the winner of the 2024 Julia Harper Day Award for Documentary Studies. The sociology major, who will graduate with a Certificate in Documentary Studies, will receive a prize of $500.

This award was created in 1992 in memory of Julia Harper Day, who was the Center for Documentary Studies’ first staff member as well as a photographer and writer. The annual award recognizes seniors who have demonstrated excellence in documentary studies and significantly contributed to CDS programs.

Grimes, who is from the Bronx in New York City, describes themselves as a queer, Black, first-generation college student whose documentary work fuses humanities research and digital media creation. Their aim is to explore the reflexive relationship between social theory and practice.

As a rising junior, Grimes participated in a Story+ summer research team called “Our Day Out: A Story of Queer Resistance and Leadership.” The students conducted archival research and collected oral histories about prominent queer activists in Durham to examine the implications of anti-LGBTQ violence.

“Staci artfully created a film essay that referenced the structure and tone of a canonic documentary work, but they brought to it their own unique energy, a deeply personal perspective and a contemporary feel. Staci was also generous in their feedback and care to their classmates, and has been an exemplary student of the arts at Duke.”

As a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow, Grimes conducted research utilizing a Black feminist epistemology to examine representations of love and romantic partnership in literature and film. This research inspired two projects: “In My Loving Bed,” a photography series capturing the complexities of intimacy within Black lesbian relationships; and “Reclaiming Love,” a capstone documentary reflecting on the social politics of love and family dynamics through an exploration of Grimes’ parents’ digital archive.

“Staci artfully created a film essay that referenced the structure and tone of a canonic documentary work, but they brought to it their own unique energy, a deeply personal perspective and a contemporary feel,” said Chris Sims, who taught the capstone seminar in the fall. “Staci was also generous in their feedback and care to their classmates, and has been an exemplary student of the arts at Duke.”

Grimes participated in the Duke in LA program and received the 2024 Benenson Award in the Arts. After graduation, they’ll intern at a documentary film production company in Los Angeles and produce a documentary film placing the city’s Leimert Park neighborhood as the center of Black arts and culture.