ABOUT THE JOHN HOPE FRANKLIN HUMANITIES INSTITUTE

The mission of the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University is to encourage and enable serious humanistic inquiry, and to promote a heightened awareness of the centrality of the humanities to the quality of human life, social interaction, and scholarship in all fields. To these ends, we emphasize a broad conception of interdisciplinarity – one that encompasses all methods and approaches, and which acknowledges the importance of the core humanities disciplines – as well as scholarly work that examines issues of social equity, especially research on race and ethnicity in their most profound historical and international dimensions. In this ambitious mission, we are inspired by the late John Hope Franklin, James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of History.

Founded in 1999, the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute (FHI) is a built on a fundamentally collaborative model fitting Duke’s emphasis on facilitating interdisciplinary cross-fertilization. Through an array of innovative programs, we seek to encourage the conversations, partnerships, and collaborations that are continually stimulating creative and fresh humanistic research, writing, and teaching at Duke.

The FHI is the largest member of the community of Duke programs headquartered in the John Hope Franklin Center for Interdisciplinary and International Studies. The Frankin Center is a “center of centers”, occupying a recently renovated, WWII-era nurse’s dormitory, located between Duke’s East and West campuses. Building on the laboratory environment of the Franklin Center, the FHI frequently collaborates with other Franklin Center units, such as the Center for International Studies, and the University Scholars Program, and the Information Science/Information Studies Program (ISIS), to name a few.

Since its inception, The FHI has been a key component in Duke’s overall strategic direction. The FHI played a key role in the 2000 strategic plan, Building on Excellence, and has recently been identified as a “signature” institute in the 2005-6 Strategic Plan, Making a Difference. As a part of the 2006-12 plan, the FHI has been provided with five years of new program funding to develop innovative new initiatives which will significantly expand our reach and impact. Also during this time, the FHI will be the administrative home of the international Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes.

Our core program, the FHI Annual Seminar is a focused, year-long inquiry around a broad unifying theme, and it is the main vehicle for FHI support of individual scholarly work. The Seminar has since 1999 supported close to 100 research projects, including work by over 60 duke faculty members, over 35 Duke graduate students, nine postdoctoral fellows, and six Duke librarians. Beginning in 2007-08, the Seminar will also host two postdoctoral fellows and an Exchange Fellow from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

In 2007-08, with resources from Duke’s new strategic plan, we began our new program, which will host up to eight major scholars each year for residencies of between two and four weeks.

We also present numerous high-level, engaging, often collaboratively-sponsored public programs, including lectures, panels, conferences, colloquia, as well as film screenings and other arts and media programs. With the staff of the Franklin Center, we also co-sponsor the long-running and popular lunchtime conversation series, Wednesdays at the Center.

Because we seek to enhance connections among those who produce scholarship and those who collect and disseminate it, we have developed several programs that bring Duke humanists together with colleagues in the libraries and in scholarly publishing. Through our Scholarly Publishing Events Series, planned in collaboration with Duke University Press on “The Role and Future of Scholarly Publishing in American Intellectual Life,” we have held or planned nine events that highlight issues in scholarly publishing. In collaboration with the Library we have sponsored a workshop on “Careers in Research Libraries: Opportunities for Humanities Graduate Students and PhDs.” Additionally, through the support of the Mellon Foundation, we have sponsored year-long publishing internships at Duke University Press for several graduate and undergraduate students. Finally, we have provided crucial support for six Duke library fellows in the Franklin Seminar since 2002.

Again, thanks to support from the Mellon Foundation, we have offered support both to graduate and undergraduate students in the humanities. Our Graduate Careers workshop series and Mellon Dissertation Working Groups have underwritten graduate research and professional development. Our Interdisciplinary Teaching Workshop, held in 2004, encouraged participants to “teach outside the lines” by offering practical tips on such matters as team teaching and engaging the intellectual rationale for teaching that crosses disciplinary boundaries.

Through a number of communications mechanisms, the FHI is quickly emerging as a clearinghouse and publicizer of humanities programs and news across the Duke campus. In 2005, we inaugurated an announcement listserv, recently renamed “FHI-events-news@duke.edu,” which currently has over 1000 subscribers. The FHI also co-founded and currently manages the Humanities Communicators Group, a working group focused on communications practices in the humanities and the coordination of departmental and unit efforts in the area of public and inter-campus communications.

The FHI offers several kinds of support mechanisms tailored for Duke faculty members, librarians, Duke graduate students, humanities scholars, and other Duke units. Please click here for more information on fellowships, sponsorships, and other opportunities.

The FHI reports to the Office of the Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Studies and Dean of Humanities in the College of Arts & Sciences. The FHI’s Faculty Advisory Board provides important input on program content and major strategic issues.

Funding for several major programs is and has been provided by major, multi-year grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Operating funding for the FHI is provided by the Office of the Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Studies and the College of Arts and Sciences. Program development support 2007-2012 is provided by funds from the Duke Strategic Investment Plan (SIP2).