2024-25 Current Opportunities
Open to Qualified Applicants
Senior Program Coordinator, Center for Documentary Studies
Are you passionate about the power of documentary work to illuminate the human experience? Do you thrive in a collaborative, creative environment where every day offers new opportunities to learn, share and make a difference? CDS is seeking a dynamic and dedicated senior program coordinator to play a pivotal role in supporting the vibrant, interdisciplinary community that defines our center. You’ll be at the heart of CDS’s mission, working closely with the director, program director and operations team to bring our programs to life. Your work will ensure the smooth operation of our academic offerings and public events, and you’ll be instrumental in amplifying the impact and visibility of our work within the university and the wider community. Learn more and apply.
Previous Opportunities
Doc+ Program Director
The Center for Documentary Studies seeks applications from current Duke faculty to become the Doc+ program director. The ideal candidate will have a record of community-engaged artistic practice and/or scholarship, teaching, the capacity to collaborate with peers and with staff and faculty across the university, and experience with academic service and/or community-building that demonstrates excellent potential for leadership.
Doc+ is a new six-week, full-time co-curricular summer learning opportunity for Duke students, and will be one of the +Programs at Duke. Effort is approximately 10% during the academic year (focused on project curation/selection) and 50–70% during the summer period.
The Doc+ program director will work closely with the director of CDS and a program coordinator on all aspects of the design and implementation of the Doc+ program, from strategic and financial planning to the successful fielding of summer programs. The deadline was October 23, 2024.
DocX Residency–Another World is Possible
The DocX Residency–Another World is Possible is an opportunity for documentary artists, independent scholars and knowledge-keepers whose work and practice centers counter knowledges, counter imagination and otherwise possibilities to be supported in their imagining. Three to five fellows will be selected for this DocX residency program and awarded $20,000 each to support projects (installation, film, photography exhibit, XR project, audio work, etc.) in a pivotal stage of late development or production. Fellows will be asked to reside in Durham, North Carolina, for a month, be offered a workspace at Duke University, and have access to campus resources to further their projects. The deadline was October 14, 2024.
The Bill and Lorna Chafe Postdoctoral Fellowship in Oral History and Social Justice
Duke’s Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) and History Department invited 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. The deadline was April 1, 2024. See recipient.
John Hope Franklin Student Documentary Awards
The Center for Documentary Studies offered 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. The deadline was April 1, 2024. See recipients.
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 invited 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 deadline was March 27, 2024. See recipient.
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. See recipients.
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.