Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Trinity College of Arts & Sciences is home to 80 percent of Duke's undergraduate student body and will soon welcome another graduating class as part of our esteemed alumni. Among the graduates are dancers, researchers student organization presidents and this year's student commencement speaker, Economics major and art history minor Zahra Hassan. Duke's main commencement ceremony will be held on Sunday, May 12, and many departments and programs will host their own ceremonies throughout the weekend. To find more… read more » about Celebrating the Trinity Class of 2024
Cate Knothe openly admits she applied to Duke on a whim. As a high school senior who was focused on Northeast schools, she felt a need to broaden her horizons a bit — a common theme repeated throughout her four years at Duke. It was a conversation with an alumna that sealed the deal for Knothe, who will graduate in May with double majors in German and Cinematic Arts and a minor in Chemistry. “I talked to a doctor who had also done a degree in Art History and studied abroad with Duke in Oxford,” Knothe explains. “Her… read more » about Limitless Lens: Future Filmmaker Reaped the Benefits at Duke
“As a playwright, you have the freedom to tell the audience what kind of world they are experiencing,” said Isa Mellody, “but the rules have to be well thought out and specific.” Mellody, who is graduating with a major in Theater Studies, spent her senior year developing rules for the world she built for her distinction project, Do I Know You?, an original play written under the direction of Professor Neal Bell. "Do I Know You? is about a college student, Kat, who's in the often painful, often… read more » about Discovering the Playwright Within: Isa Mellody Asks Do I Know You?
As a pre-health student majoring in Religious Studies with minors in Biology and Chemistry, Christina Lewis (T, ‘24) wanted her honors project to tie together her academic interests and explore ways in which she, a future clinician, might best serve her patients. Lewis’ thesis focuses on alternative healing practices and how they are applied in Western medical settings. She’s investigating why certain practices with religious or spiritual elements are embraced by integrative medical clinics affiliated with reputable… read more » about Combining the Holistic and Academic: A Student’s Look at Alternative Medicine in Traditional Settings
Emi Hegarty’s distinction project, Biology, Movement and Theater, is a true synthesis of the senior’s four years at Duke. It encompasses not just what she’s learned in her undergraduate career, but also the connections she’s made between her two majors, Theater Studies and Biology. The idea for the project was born when Hegarty was introduced to the concept of Umwelt in Professor Stephen Nowicki’s Mechanisms of Animal Behavior class. Umwelt, she explained, is a notion that Baltic-German… read more » about Using Biology to Build a Character’s World
Maya Ghanem is a graduating senior majoring in International Comparative Studies and minoring in Religious Studies, with a concentration in the Middle East. A leader of the queer Muslim student group, Jummah 4 All, Ghanem’s research is grounded in queer Muslim studies and sexual ethics among Muslim authorities. Their honors thesis on queer Muslims and environmental futurisms focused on the interconnected struggles of queer Muslims and nonhuman creation against Orientalist binaries. Ghanem’s writing on analyzing Arab media… read more » about Maya Ghanem Knows Collaboration is Critical
Suzie Choi is a graduating senior from Seoul, Korea studying International Comparative Studies with a Political Science minor and Innovation and Entrepreneurship Certificate (I&E). On campus, Choi served as the Vice President of the Social Impact Committee at Business Oriented Women (BOW), as the Co-Vice President of Duke’s UNICEF-Durham Affairs Committee, as a I&E Student Fellow and as a flutist at the Duke Flute Studio. Choi’s keen interest in locally led international development led her to a… read more » about Suzie Choi Would Like You to Pursue Everything
In high school, Amber Smith planned to become a physician. “Before college, I had no intention of studying Sociology and barely even knew what the discipline was about,” said Smith, who is graduating this Spring with a major in Sociology, concentration in medical sociology, and a minor in Global Health. “During my first semester at Duke, I took an introductory class, SOCIOL 110: Sociological Inquiry, with Professor Craig Rawlings. I quickly found myself deeply interested in the material.” Smith enrolled in more Sociology… read more » about Amber Smith Analyzes Abortion Care Access as a Social Network
When he arrived at Duke four years ago as a first-year student in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, Elaijah Lapay said he had no idea of what would happen next, but he knew he needed to do something of value. As he now prepares to graduate, Lapay leaves with a record of service that has helped address local issues of food insecurity and access to health care for migrant workers. For his leadership and selfless services to others, Lapay recently joined two others at Duke in receiving the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award… read more » about The Sullivan Award: Honoring Three Who Aid Others at Duke and in the Community
Writing as a means of critical inquiry is a cornerstone of Duke’s academic curriculum. Despite its vital role, writing is often thought of as a fixed talent — some do it with ease, others do not — but the reality is that good writing, as any other skill, can be learned. The teaching of writing is the mission of the Thompson Writing Program (TWP). TWP helps students develop as writers during their years at Duke and beyond, including by teaching undergraduate students to become peer writing consultants through its Writing… read more » about A Riff on the Classic Q&A from Peer Writing Consultants Jocelyn Chin and Tomas Esber
Five Trinity students made their way to South Bend, Indiana for the 18th annual ACC Meeting of the Minds conference in April. Thang Lian, Sasha Bacot, Julia Davis, Abby Cortez and Trisha Santanam were selected to represent Duke and Trinity College of Arts & Sciences in the annual research conference celebrating undergraduate research and creative inquiry. Hosted this year by the University of Notre Dame, the Meeting of the Minds invites students from the 15 Atlantic Coast Conference member schools to participate by… read more » about Trinity Students Head to the ACC Meeting of the Minds Conference
Physics major Michael Bell first became interested in the subject as a junior in high school. “I took an Intro to Physics course and after asking too many questions that were ‘beyond the scope of the class,’ my teacher introduced me to the basics of string theory — and I was hooked,” he says. Bell soon found himself contemplating “physics-breaking” questions like: Is Force = mass * acceleration still true for an object with zero mass? Although he would eventually arrive at the answers, he rarely understood them. So… read more » about Physics and Music Creates Interstellar Rhythms
“There’s a particular tradition in the history of philosophy of science that doesn’t just ask what people said and thought in the past, but why they were incited to speak and think one way rather than another,” said Nima Bassiri. This is the question that Bassiri, assistant professor of Literature and codirector of Duke’s Institute for Critical Theory, examines in his book Madness and Enterprise: Psychiatry, Economic Reason, and the Emergence of Pathological Value, released earlier this year by the… read more » about Does Madness Pay? Nima Bassiri Explores Madness and Enterprise
Historian Thavolia Glymph, cell biologist Cagla Eroglu and three Duke University trustees are among the 250 prominent scholars, artists and leaders elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences on Wednesday. Trustees Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors; Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Inc.; and Grant Hill, investor and philanthropist with Hill Ventures Inc. were also elected, as was Duke alumna Melanie Matchett Wood, William Caspar Graustein Professor of Mathematics at Harvard University, a leading mathematician of number… read more » about Historian Thavolia Glymph Elected to American Academy of Arts & Sciences
Ask Deja Simms, a sixth-grade English Language Arts teacher at Durham’s Neal Middle School, about her class’s Friday learning sessions with Duke students, and she’ll say: “We usually have low attendance Fridays, but now no student is missing. They’re like, ‘The Duke students are coming?’ They’re excited.” The lessons were part of education professor Kisha Daniels’ Critical Pedagogy of Hip Hop class, where her students worked with the sixth graders on exploring how social issues are connected to musical genres. The class… read more » about Hip Hop in the Classroom
Six members of the Class of 2025 have been named to the fourth class of Nakayama Scholars. The Nakayama Public Service Scholarship bolsters the university’s efforts to encourage students to use their Duke experience to engage with significant challenges facing communities around the world. The students represent multiple disciplines across Duke’s academic departments as well as a variety of future career pursuits. Juniors Vineet Chovatia, Amy Fulton, Sarah Konrad, Will Lieber, Thomas Newberry, and Elliot… read more » about Duke Names Fourth Class of Nakayama Scholars
