Duke on Demand

While linguistic skill is a hallmark of humanity, the increasing volume of linguistic data each of us faces is causing individual and societal problems -- 'information overload' is a commonly discussed condition. Big data has enabled new tasks, such as finding the most appropriate information online, engaging in historical study using language data on the level of millions of documents, and tracking trends in sentiment and opinion in real time. These tasks need not cause stress and feelings of overload: the human intellectual capacity is not the problem. Rather, the current technological supports are inappropriate for these tasks. Linguistic information overload is not a new phenomenon: throughout history, the pace of information creation and storage has exceeded the pace of development of management strategies. Dr. Collins' research aims to bring new, richly interactive interfaces to the forefront of information management, in order to keep up with the current challenges of 'big data' and the growing power of linguistic computing algorithms.

Professor Ellen McLarney discusses her research on women's rights, freedom and democracy in Islam.

Katie Contess ('13) studied two divergent maps of India and here describes each map's history and context.

These maps and others studied by BorderWork(s) students will make up "Defining Lines: Cartography in the Age of Empire," part of the exhibit "Lines of Control" on display at the Nasher Museum of Art September 19, 2013 - February 2, 2014.

Erving Goffman used the language of theater, and a close analysis of what happens on stage, to generate a theory of social experience. This talk illustrates an adaptation of Goffman's approach, based on elementary "strips" of interaction, and repurposes it for the quantitative study of plays as micro-encounters that build into macro-structures. The encounter provides a computational signal and an interpretive concept in the "window," an arbitrarily cut strip of a given number of speeches in a play. As the window moves through the play, a micro-network is built based on the speech-acts within the window's range. While the overall network of a play can reveal something about a play's social and dramatic structure, the window helps us capture, quantitatively, the basic units of social experience that go toward creating those larger structures. The window also allows for the comparison of many plays of varying length and structure, putting, for example, the Ancients, Shakespeare, Ibsen, and Brazilian playwrights together in a new analytical frame.

Rachel Fleder ('14) discusses why she chose to study two maps by John Bartholomew and John Barrow, detailing reasons why each map was created and the use of the specific information provided on each map.

These maps and others studied by BorderWork(s) students will make up "Defining Lines: Cartography in the Age of Empire," part of the exhibit "Lines of Control" on display at the Nasher Museum of Art September 19, 2013 - February 2, 2014.

Lauren Jackson ('14) explains her research process when studying two maps of Africa: one map of the Liberian coast and one map of the continent of Africa by British engraver John Lodge.

These maps and others studied by BorderWork(s) students will make up "Defining Lines: Cartography in the Age of Empire," part of the exhibit "Lines of Control" on display at the Nasher Museum of Art September 19, 2013 - February 2, 2014.

The Graduate Students of the Duke University Department of History were pleased to invite Dr. Thomas Laqueur, professor of history at University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Laqueur was the keynote speaker for Navigating Place and Power, an annual one-day conference at Duke University, which took place on Friday, February 15, 2013. This interdisciplinary conference sought to promote dialogue between scholars of various disciplines in order to explore how individuals and groups negotiate systems of power. In this talk, Dr. Laqueur discusses the concept of deep time & necrogeography while analyzing the impact of the collective dead on building culture & communities throughout human history.

Sidney Mintz, who has profoundly shaped Caribbean Studies, reflects here on his intellectual trajectory, his life and his fieldwork.
Duke's HAITI LAB on FB: https://www.facebook.com/haitilab?ref=hl
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Other participants in this conversation include Eric Mintz (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), Laurent Dubois (Romance Studies and History; Haiti Lab), and Deborah Jenson (Romance Studies; Haiti Lab).

The 2013 FHI Annual Distinguished Lecture was delivered by Rob Nixon, Rachel Carson Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Prof. Nixon's visit was jointly sponsored by the FHI and the Nicholas School of the Environment. The lecture took place on March 27, 2013 at the Nasher Museum.

Presented by the Southern Food and Beverage Museum, with support from the Triangle University Food Studies Group and FHI At this "Culinaria Queries" event, scholars from both Duke and UNC as well as local chefs will discuss the intriguing question, "is food art?" The panelists include: Kevin Callaghan (Chef of Acme Food and Beverage Co.), Bernie Hermand (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), Sharon Holland (Duke University), Laura Lieber (Duke University), and Liz Williams (Director of the Southern Food and Beverage Museum). To learn more about the panelists and the event please see visit http://southernfood.org/sofab/?p=7601.

For more information, please visit sites.fhi.duke.edu/haitiandhumanitarianism.

Day 2, Panel 4 Livestream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEr7DOgESio

For more information, please visiti sites.fhi.duke.edu/haitiandhumanitiarianism

Day 2, Panel 3 Livestream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVgPKwsysp4

For more information, please visit sites.fhi.duke.edu/haitiandhumanitarianism.

Day 1, Panel 2 Livestream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfgcf-efRF0
Day 2, Panel 3 Livestream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVgPKwsysp4
Day 2, Panel 4 Livestream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEr7DOgESio

What can human rights studies bring to an academic curriculum? Professor James Dawes discusses the creation of the Human Rights and Humanitarianism concentration at Macalester College.
An interdisciplinary effort, the concentration covers the history of human rights and humanitarianism; an understanding of the international legal and institutional frameworks governing human rights and the theoretical and philosophical debates about the meanings of human rights and humanitarianism.

Check out an interview with Prof. Dawes at: http://today.duke.edu/2013/02/dawes