Chapter 4 - Academic Goals and Strategies to Build Distinction
Building on the legacy of Dr. John Hope Franklin and affirming that humanistic scholarship can and should inform and enrich present debates, policies, public discourse, and community life, the FHI will seek to stake out a more directly engaged public role for the Duke humanities. Among its advancement strategies, the FHI will enable more opportunities for unrestricted faculty research fellowships in residence. To diversify the cultural scope of Duke's curriculum and further infuse interdisciplinary and inquiry-based learning into undergraduate education, the FHI will also devote considerable effort to curriculum development, such as interdisciplinary gateway courses for humanities majors and team-taught by distinguished senior faculty.
The Kenan Institute for Ethics: From its beginnings in 1995, the Kenan Institute for Ethics (KIE) has grown into one of the most active and respected ethics centers in the country. A university-wide initiative housed under the Provost's Office, the Institute supports the study and teaching of ethics and works to infuse moral deliberation, commitment, and courage into the fabric of Duke and beyond. The KIE has already had a significant impact both as an ethics "think and do tank" and has served the university in many ways as a consultant, facilitator, and convener for ethics-related activities across the curriculum and in campus life.
Enhancing Duke's undergraduate experience and placing knowledge in the service of society require us to reflect on the core values and purposes of creating and transmitting knowledge. The KIE is uniquely positioned to lead such discussions as it focuses its attention on three core areas: moral development, organizational ethics, and civic and global ethics. In its second decade of work, the KIE seeks to recruit a cluster of ethics scholars with joint appointments between the Institute and another department or school; to expand curricular opportunities in ethics and develop approaches to evaluating and improving ethics teaching and practice; and to launch a cluster of ethics-related programs focused on campus life. The institute will also continue to promote ethics in K-12, higher education, and business.
The Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions: The Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions (NIEPS), launched in the fall of 2005, is to be the translational arm for environmental research on campus, and by doing so, to become a unique and distinct broker in the often divisive debates that characterize the arena of environmental policy. The environmental policy dialogue has become polarized, with most participants perceived to be aligned with one or other political party. The NIEPS will work to catalyze progress on environmental problems in ways that work toward a consensus or common understanding of the problems, thereby reducing adversarial debate.
The NIEPS builds on the strength of the Nicholas School. Nicholas faculty are enthusiastic about interdisciplinary cooperation across campus and working collaboratively on policy-relevant projects. Because of the close partnerships between the NIEPS and various schools, the institute's work will have the credibility that comes from an exhaustive faculty review process, yet be produced on a schedule that comports with the decision-making cycles of government, industry, and other institutions. Drawing on faculty expertise and its core group of professional staff, the institute will focus on the translation of this knowledge to guide decision makers in the public and private sectors. Because the institute's ability to access the relevant decision-makers will evolve from leveraging established relationships; a permanent presence in Washington, D.C., the location of many of the environmental debates with which the institute will concern itself, will be strategic. Not only will this enable the faculty and staff associated with the NIEPS to build and maintain relationships with policymakers, but it will afford important research learning opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students interested in environmental policy.
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