The Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) is pleased to announce the artists selected to participate in the virtual DocX Archive Lab—How Are We Known: Reimagining, Repurposing, and Rewriting the Archive—launching September 24, 2021. The lab is a project of CDS’s DocX initiative supporting BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color) artists, curators, and thought leaders working across the nonfiction landscape. “The submissions for our inaugural lab were impressive; in fact, we expanded the cohort given the number… read more about Fellows Selected for 2021–22 DocX Archive Lab »
The Trinity College of Arts & Sciences has announced the winners of the 2021 awards for undergraduate teaching. Given each year, the awards honor exceptionally strong educators from across the college. Teaching award recipients are selected by the Arts & Sciences Council on the basis of student evaluations, teaching statements and colleague recommendations. “These four awards are bestowed by the Arts & Sciences faculty in recognition of especially outstanding teaching,” said Arts & Sciences Council Chair… read more about Arts & Sciences Teaching Awards Celebrate Excellence Across the College »
Season 5 of Scene on Radio, the two-time Peabody-nominated podcast from the Center for Documentary Studies, launches September 15, 2021. Over the course of about ten weekly episodes, producer and host John Biewen and co-host Amy Westervelt—the award-winning climate journalist and host of the Drilled podcast—will explore the cultural roots of our current ecological emergency, and the deep changes Western society will need to make to save the Earth and our… read more about CDS’s "Scene on Radio" Podcast Previews Season 5, "The Repair," on the Climate Crisis »
The Center for Documentary Studies’ DocX initiative is intended to evolve as the practice of documentary evolves, driven by what documentary artists need to make their work most resonant in the world. Following a pilot phase (2015–2020), DocX is entering its next stage of evolution: to support BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color) artists and thought leaders working across the nonfiction landscape. To reimagine what documentary work looks and sounds like, DocX… read more about CDS to Host New DocX Archive Lab; Applications Now Open »
A student film project at Duke’s Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) was turned this week into a 12-minute opinion video for the New York Times. In the film, James Robinson, who graduated in 2020, shows what it feels like to live with several disabling eye conditions that have defied an array of treatments and caused him countless humiliations. Using playful graphics and enlisting his family as subjects in a series of optical tests, he invites others to view the world through… read more about How Life Looks Through 'My Whale Eyes' »
At the end of June, Wesley Hogan will conclude an 8-year tenure as director of Duke’s Center for Documentary Studies (CDS). She’ll return to the Duke faculty as a research professor with Duke’s Franklin Humanities Institute. Her successor is expected to be named soon. In her new role as a research professor, Hogan will continue teaching courses focusing on oral history, human rights and youth social movements. She’ll also continue work on a project that’s been at Duke as long as she has. In her… read more about Wesley Hogan: On Giving Documentary Subjects A Strong Voice in Their Stories »
Seventh-graders invited by CDS exhibitions director Courtney Reid-Eaton to Myra Greene's My White Friends exhibit, 2014. Photograph by Katie Hyde. The Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University is proud to announce its new Curator’s Award for Insight and Innovation to recognize both established and emerging Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) curators in the documentary field writ large. While there are many awards that honor the contributions of… read more about CDS Creates New Curators' Award, Names Courtney Reid-Eaton Inaugural Recipient »
Callanish I, Isle of Lewis, Scotland, 2010 | Private Collections MJ Sharp, a Lecturing Fellow of Documentary Studies at Duke University and a longtime photography instructor at the school’s Center for Documentary Studies (CDS), has been named a Fulbright Scholar for the 2021–22 academic year. The documentary and fine arts photographer will pursue an arts/science project, “Our Disappearing Darkness and Recreating True Night,” at the University of Exeter, UK, building on more than… read more about CDS Photo Instructor MJ Sharp Receives 2021–22 Fulbright for Project in the UK »
Floyd Country Store Friday Jamboree (Photo: Richard Toller, licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0) On Friday nights, the small town of Floyd in southwestern Virginia (population 425) becomes a gathering spot to play and hear American traditional music. Decades ago, the Floyd Country Store started hosting an informal jamboree. Word spread, the crowds grew, and the store now boasts a state-of-the-art performance stage. “People come from all over the world every Friday night,” says Charles D.… read more about Rock Castle Home: A Disappearing Appalachian Community Shares Its Stories »
"I reached out to Chris [Everett, producer and director of Wilmington on Fire 2] after I had seen [Wilmington on Fire] and a number of actor friends from the Wilmington [North Carolina] area told me that I had to watch this..." (Read More) read more about Full Frame’s Chris Everett and His “Wilmington On Fire” Films Praised in Interview Magazine »
(Film available on PBS.org.) Watch the Emmy spot. read more about Shaw Rising Wins Emmy Award—Feature Doc About NC HBCU Written and Produced by CDS Instructor Hal Goodtree »
“The Pretend Villages,” a New Photobook by CDS Undergrad Ed Director Chris Sims, Featured in German GQ, Major Munich and Lisbon Papers read more about "The Pretend Villages" by Chris Sims Featured »
Members of the "Our Story" project planning group A new initiative developed by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Legacy Project (SLP), the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, the Duke Libraries, the New Georgia Project, BYP 100, and the Ohio Voice and made possible by a $630,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, aims to document how today’s activists built their social and political movements. An understanding of the present day… read more about “Our Story. Our Terms: Documenting Movement Building from the Inside Out” »
The Scene on Radio podcast from the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) at Duke University has been nominated for a 2021 Peabody Award for its Season 4 series on democracy. Created and produced by CDS audio director John Biewen and distributed by PRX, the podcast aims to explore human experience and society. The season-long series The Land That Never Has Been Yet (January–June 2020) explores democracy in America, past and… read more about CDS Podcast Garners Second Peabody Award Nomination »
Zoom screenshot of Fall 2020 Capstone Seminar students with CDS Lecturing Fellow Nancy Kalow (top left) The Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) is proud to recognize thirteen Duke University undergraduates from the 2020–2021 academic year who have earned a Certificate in Documentary Studies. Working in one or more documentary mediums—photography, filmmaking, writing, audio, performance, among others—students complete a program of study involving community-based research and fieldwork. Certificate students… read more about CDS Celebrates Certificate in Documentary Studies Graduates »
The Office for Faculty Advancement has awarded seed grants to 14 faculty-led projects exploring new ideas and expanding existing initiatives to promote an equitable and inclusive academic environment at Duke. The theme for this cycle was "Confronting Racism and Bias: Fostering an Inclusive Community." Faculty Advancement Seed Grants provide a financial head start for novel faculty development initiatives within academic units. 2021-22 Faculty Advancement Seed Grants Art, Art History and Visual Studies Anti-Racist Pedagogy… read more about Seed Grants Help Faculty Lead the Way in Confronting Racism and Bias »
Part of our “Art and Artists are Essential” collection and invitation. “I started writing music over winter break from home. I met Robbie Rosen, a producer and American Idol finalist, who helped me write original songs for the first time! This is a song about being stuck between two places, and I think every Duke student has felt this in some capacity, especially during the pandemic. We were back in our hometowns for longer than we are used to, and many of us are questioning where we feel most at home. I feel really… read more about Sophia Roth ‘22: “Between Two Worlds” »
How many people have seen their cervix? Obscured from view and stigmatized socially, the cervix is critical to women’s, transgender-men’s, and non-binary folks’ health — and potential reproductive health issues. A team formed through Duke’s Center for Global Women’s Health Technologies (GWHT) has created a device that not only holds immense medical potential but the potential to empower people with cervixes across the globe: It makes visible a previously invisible organ. Nimmi Ramanujam (Ph.D.), founder of GWHT and… read more about Invisible No More, the Cervix »
In 2021, the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) will embark on a new collaboration with three Charlotte, North Carolina–based partners to gather, preserve, and share local histories—stories, documents, visual imagery, and memories—about the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on Black, Latinx, and Indigenous communities in Mecklenburg County. CDS, the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, Johnson C. Smith University, and the Levine Museum of the New South will map out and implement the three-year… read more about CDS Partners on “Living Archive” Project to Document Impact of COVID-19 on Charlotte Communities »
Deirdre Haj, director of the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival since January 2010, is stepping down from her position, effective March 15, 2021. Full Frame is a program of the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. Over the past eleven years, Deirdre has led the festival to numerous achievements, including the creation of the signature festival Speakeasy conversation series, the School of Doc filmmaking course for teens, and the Teach the Teachers documentary literacy… read more about Festival Director Deirdre Haj Stepping Down in March »
This month, we present a collection of 10 Duke-authored books detailing the history of Black life in America. While this is not a comprehensive list of all Duke scholarship on Black history, it is intended to be an introduction to the multifaceted work of Duke scholars in public policy, history, documentary studies, religious studies, African and African-American studies, cultural anthropology, sociology, art, art history, and visual studies. These books, along with many others, are available at Duke… read more about 10 Duke-Authored Books on Black History »
Courtney Liu '13, MFA in Dance '21, shares "Blurring the Lines" created with undergraduate students in Intermediate Ballet. "Creative projects are still being made and it is more important than ever to share, engage with, and celebrate each other's work," shares Emma Geiger, MFA EDA '22, who collaborated on filming and editing. Part of our “Art and Artists are Essential” collection and invitation. Intermediate Ballet (Dance 122) completed the Fall 2020 semester by producing “Blurring the Lines.” This short dance… read more about Blurring the Lines: Collective Resonance During COVID-19 »