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. The first year is not fully residential, but involves a series of week-long visits to engage with faculty, students and community groups, as appropriate, to present on work-in-… read more about Request for Proposals: Lehman Brady Visiting Professor in Documentary Studies and American Studies at Duke University and UNC–Chapel Hill »
Henschel leads an editing workshop. (John West/Trinity Communications) Lauren Henschel is flipping the script on traditional evaluation methods. As co-leader of an interdisciplinary Trinity initiative that gives students in certain courses the option to create a video project for their final as opposed to a written paper, she’s introducing students to new skills as directors, interviewers and producers. An Associate in Research in the Gender Sexuality and Feminist Studies… read more about A Movie Script Ending: Bringing Film Into the Classroom »
Yasaman Baghban is an Iranian-born experimental and documentary filmmaker who received her MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts (EDA) from Duke last year. She was recently selected to join the Center for Documentary Studies as a part-time instructor in Spring 2024. We asked Baghban a few questions about her course, Capstone Seminar in Documentary Studies, and her creative work. How are you approaching your class at CDS? What will your students do? I started with a questionnaire for the students. This asked about… read more about CDS Instructor Spotlight: Yasaman Baghban »
Three part-time instructors have been selected to join the Center for Documentary Studies as instructors of undergraduate courses in Spring 2024. Shiraz Ahmed Shiraz Ahmed is a journalist and documentary filmmaker who is completing the MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts program at Duke. He has worked as a business and local news reporter in Detroit, Memphis and Houston, covering technology, social services and activism. He also volunteers as a creative and personal writing coach for high school and college students… read more about Three New Instructors Augment Undergraduate Education in Documentary Studies »
Duke’s Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) is currently supporting three Ph.D. student fellows who are pursuing research related to documentary studies. As part of the fellowship, each student will give a presentation on an aspect of their dissertation research that relates to documentary studies. Registration is requested so that the organizers can distribute a work-in-progress paper or film prior to the event. Everyone is welcome to attend. Snacks will be provided for these discussion-based seminars (except on March 4,… read more about Join Us for First Mondays at CDS: Spring 2024 Work-in-Progress Seminars »
Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies is now accepting applications for our DocX Development Lab–Otherwise Histories, Otherwise Futures – a week-long convening of documentary artists, scholars and nontraditional/independent researchers. About the Lab “While not accepting could be termed resistance, our interest and proposition … are, more crucially, with re-existence, understood as the redefining and resignifying of life in conditions of… read more about Applications Open for DocX Development Lab–Otherwise Histories, Otherwise Futures »
The Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) invites grant applications from regular-rank Duke faculty to seed new research undertakings related to documentary studies, broadly conceived. As a growing number of faculty engage with documentary studies, CDS wishes to incorporate new approaches and perspectives into its scholarly activities. Areas of focus might include videography and documentary film, photography, podcasting and other modes of audio documentary, oral history, experimental media, and other digital… read more about Research Seed Grants in Documentary Studies: Fall 2023 RFP »
The Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) invites grant applications from regular-rank Duke faculty to support the development of new 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. As a growing number of faculty engage with documentary studies, CDS wishes… read more about Course Development Grants in Documentary Studies: Fall 2023 RFP »
In 2013, the SNCC Legacy Project and Duke University formed a partnership to create a digital archive that chronicles the struggles for voting rights and develop programs that contribute to a more inclusive democracy. This week, the Mellon Foundation, which supports the archive, showcases how it is bringing the history of the civil rights movement to a new generation. read more about Mellon Foundation Highlights SNCC Civil Rights Digital Archive Housed at Duke »
Three Ph.D. students from two departments have been awarded research fellowships by Duke’s Center for Documentary Studies, following a request for proposals in July. 2023-2024 Center for Documentary Studies Ph.D. Fellows Academic Year Jobie Hill, Ph.D. in History Pharsalia Plantation Co-Stewardship Project Spring Semester Jessica Doyle, Ph.D. in Romance Studies Extractions: Ecomedia Events in the Amazon Sam Hunnicutt, Ph.D. in Romance Studies Indigenous Revision: Media Technologies and Representation in Late-20th… read more about New Documentary Studies Fellowships Support Dissertation Research and Related Projects »
It is with great sadness that we share that Full Frame founder and award-winning filmmaker Nancy Buirski has died. We have lost a visionary artist and a champion for both the festival and the documentary community at large. In founding Full Frame, Buirski established a singular celebration for filmmakers and audiences in Durham, North Carolina. The immeasurable impact of her extraordinary talent and steadfast determination will never be forgotten. read more about Nancy Buirski, Founder of Full Frame, Has Passed Away »
What comes to mind when you hear: “We held a funeral for a glacier?” And how does that make you feel? Sad? Confused? Perhaps wondering if a “dead” glacier is nothing more than a puddle of water? The idea of holding funerals for glaciers and the ecological grief that accompanies their death is what Kulsoom Rizavi and Jacob Whatley are exploring in a project they call “A Funeral for Ice.” By definition, a glacier is ice that moves under its own weight. When it no longer can do so because it has become too thin, it no… read more about Documenting the Death of a Glacier, and a Community’s Pain »
After a one-year pause, the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival will return to Durham in 2024. The four-day festival, which routinely draws large crowds for films and panel discussions, will be presented again at the Carolina Theatre and Durham Convention Center April 4-7. read more about Full Frame Film Festival to Return in 2024 »
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. Eligibility Duke Ph.D. students in any humanities or social science program, whose research engages with documentary studies, broadly conceived Terms Students may apply for either a two-semester or one-semester fellowship. Each two-semester fellowship pays a $28,950 stipend, at $3,216.67 per month from September through May, replacing… read more about Documentary Studies Ph.D. Fellowships: RFP 2023-24 »
The Julia Harper Day Award was created by the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) in 1992 in memory of the young woman who was CDS’s first staff member, a writer and photographer of real accomplishment. This $500 award goes to a graduating Duke University senior who has demonstrated excellence in documentary studies and contributed significantly to CDS programs. The 2023 Julia Harper Day Award went to Josephine Vonk, a psychology major who graduated with a… read more about Duke Senior Josephine Vonk Wins 2023 Julia Harper Day Award »
The Certificate in Documentary Studies program attracts undergraduates to the Center for Documentary Studies from across the arts and sciences. At a celebratory event on April 30, 2023 (2–6 p.m.), in the Center for Documentary Studies auditorium, the following eleven students in the Spring 2023 Documentary Capstone Seminar will receive their certificates and present their final projects, completed under the guidance of Chris Sims with Hareth Yousef in the… read more about CDS Celebrates Certificate in Documentary Studies Spring 2023 Capstone Graduates »
Duke’s Office of the Provost has convened a review committee to examine how the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) can best respond to the challenges and opportunities before it, given both the evolving landscape for documentary studies and faculty strengths across Duke. A key issue before the committee is the appropriate relationship between CDS, currently a Duke support corporation, and the rest of the university. read more about Share Your Comments on the Center for Documentary Studies »
View on the Webbys. View film and read accompanying story. read more about CDS-Supported Documentarians Win Webby Awards for “Heroes of the Pandemic” Film on Latin-19 Team »
The Cassilhaus Travel Fellowship is made possible through a three-way partnership between Cassilhaus, an arts incubator featuring an artist residency and exhibition program, and the Duke Master of Fine Arts in Experimental and Documentary Arts (MFA|EDA), the Duke Center for Documentary Studies (CDS). It was created with the idea that travel can be transformative in the life of an emerging artist. The biennial $10,000 fellowship, funded by Cassilhaus founders Ellen Cassilly and Frank… read more about MFA|EDA Grad Felicity Palma Wins $10,000 Cassilhaus Travel Fellowship »
The Julia Harper Day Award was created by the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) in 1992 in memory of the young woman who was CDS’s first staff member, a writer and photographer of real accomplishment. This $500 award goes to a graduating Duke University senior who has demonstrated excellence in documentary studies and contributed significantly to CDS programs. The 2022 Julia Harper Day Award goes to Sierra Winters, a cultural anthropology and food studies major who graduated… read more about Duke Graduate Sierra Winters Wins 2022 Julia Harper Day Award »
Alex Harris’ new book of documentary photographs, Our Strange New Land, opens with a dream-like image of a young Black girl seen through a doorway. Harris found the girl talking to herself and dancing to music. The action wasn’t “real,” as it was taken on a movie set and the young girl was rehearsing a scene she would later film. However, Harris later found out, the moment was created a reality borne from the young actors’ personality and the writer-director’s memories of her own childhood. “The scene was… read more about 'Our Strange New Land:' A Photographer Gazes at New Southern Narratives by Independent Filmmakers »
Salt water flows in my veins, and I can recall my first taste of the Atlantic Ocean at two years old. I grew up hearing stories of how a six-year-old boy and girl, my maternal grandparents, met on a sandy South Carolina road and first experienced the spark that created my extended family. Read more. read more about Southern Cultures’ Top Ten of 2020 List Includes CDS Instructor Michelle Lanier’s Essay “Rooted: Black Women, Southern Memory, and Womanist Cartographies” »
Released on Juneteenth, North Carolina Poet Laureate Jaki Shelton Green's new album of poetry, The River Speaks of Thirst, features archetypal imagery and resonant elocutions, invoking the history of Black oppression as well as the US's current societal and political climate calling for executive, legislative, and judicial reform. Read more. read more about “The River Speaks of Thirst,” CDS Instructor/NC Poet Laureate Jaki Shelton Green's Album of Poetry, Makes Popmatter’s Best Nonfiction Books of 2020 List »
The Julia Harper Day Award was created by the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) in 1992 in memory of the young woman who was CDS’s first staff member, a writer and photographer of real accomplishment. This $500 award goes to a graduating Duke University senior who has demonstrated excellence in documentary studies and contributed significantly to CDS programs. The 2021 Julia Harper Day Award went to CJ Cruz, a psychology and theater studies major who graduated with a… read more about Duke Graduate CJ Cruz Wins 2021 Julia Harper Day Award »
There are times when a Duke author has knowledge to share but it just won't work as a scholarly publication. The books below all address large issues, from fighting tyranny to facing death, but they come through the personal stories of the authors. These books, along with many others, are available at Duke University Libraries, the Gothic Bookshop or the Regulator Bookshop. No Cure for Being Human (and other truths I need to hear), by Kate… read more about 10 Duke-Authored Memoirs Have Stories to Tell »