Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University

NEW ON YOUTUBE: When the decision was made to turn Duke into a top-notch university in the 1980's, there was a substantial investment into the humanities that ushered the hiring of leading faculty who had a vision of what the field could and should look like. Along with innovating the university, there was also a push to build a cohort of scholars and graduate students focused on developing what we now know today as q***r theory. By the 1990's, with the backdrop of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which decimated the LGBTQ community worldwide, there was a hunger for an activist-approach to scholarly research that fostered a think-tank, of sorts, in gender, sexuality and feminist studies, though this was not embraced by everyone at Duke. This panel discussion featured Mandy Berry, Assistant Professor Literature at American University in Washington D.C., Jonathan Flatley, who works as a professor in the English Department at the University of Chicago, and Kathryn R. Kent, the J. Leland Miller Professor of American History, Literature and Eloquence in English and the Chair of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Williams College. Moderated by FHI's Director, Dr. Ranjana Khanna.

FHI at 25 | Queering Duke: A Conversation with Mandy Berry, Kathryn Kent, and Jonathan Flatley Duke University's John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute (FHI) is 25!Read More Here: https://fhi.duke.edu/signature-series/fhi-25/When the decision was made...

📣 Our 2023-24 Annual Report is now live! 📣

2024 marks the 25th anniversary of the Franklin Humanities Institute, which coincides with Duke's Centennial. As the calendar year draws to a close, we invite you to look back on the FHI's vibrant slate of programs in the 2023-24 academic year. The troubling events of the past year have underscored the necessity of studying and learning together. We share this report with you in the spirit of collective study.

Annual Report 2023-24 | John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute Director's Letter: A Time for Collective Study

Sad news this morning: Michèle Longino, professor emerita of Romance Studies, has passed away. In 2016, her book "French Travel Writing in the Ottoman Empire: Marseilles to Constantinople, 1650-1700" was featured in a lively multi-genre faculty book/publication panel organized by the FHI and the Duke Library. As her long-time colleague Helen Solterer remembers: “Michèle contributed her prize-winning scholarship on early modern French /Ottoman Turkish relations to intellectual life on campus and abroad. Chairing Romance Studies, she brought an elegant clarity of thought in both French and Italian. An advocate for faculty, she was a lifelong ally for her students, and committed to EDUCO, the Duke program in Paris and her colleagues there.” Our thoughts are with her family, colleagues, students, and friends. RIP.

Michèle Longino, Leading Scholar of French Studies, Dies. | Duke Today Michèle Longino, Leading Scholar of French Studies, Dies. Image Michèle Longino, who joined the Duke faculty in 1989, produced ground-breaking scholarship in 17th century French studies. Caption Close Image Michèle Longino, who joined the Duke faculty in 1989, produced ground-breaking scholarship...

Frederic Jameson, a juggernaut in cultural theory and literary criticism, will be honored this afternoon at the Nelson Music Room in the East Duke Building from 2 to 4:30p on Duke’s East Campus. All are welcomed to attend and celebrate the man who helped raise the international profile of ’s Program in Literature as well as the humanities as a whole. No registration required.

🎥 Film Screening & Panel Discussion: The Palestine Exception

Join us for two special screenings of The Palestine Exception, a documentary by Jan Haaken and Jennifer Ruth, followed by a panel discussion with the directors.

About the Film:
This powerful documentary delves into the largest anti-war movement since the 1970s, as students, faculty, and staff across U.S. campuses demand divestment from companies linked to Israel and an end to the war on Gaza. Through diverse academic voices, the film explores the history of censorship surrounding criticism of Israel and Zionism, shedding light on the "Palestine exception" and the ongoing crackdown on dissent.

📍 Event Details:
At UNC:
🗓️ Tuesday, Dec. 3
🕕 6–8 PM (doors open at 5:30 PM)
📌 Murphey 116

At Duke:
🗓️ Wednesday, Dec. 4
🕖 7–9 PM (doors open at 6:30 PM)
📌 White Lecture Hall

🎟️ Both events are free and open to the public.

🎬 Watch the trailer and learn more: palestineexceptionfilm.com

Co-sponsored by: John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute; Department of African & African-American Studies ; Art, Art History & Visual Studies ; Asian American & Diaspora Studies Program at Duke University; Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Duke University; Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies at Duke University; International Comparative Studies at Duke University; and Literature at Duke University

NEXT FRIDAY 11/22: REMEMBERING FRED JAMESON

Please share this announcement via your networks. The organizers are asking for optional registrations (for event planning purposes) at this link: https://jameson-celebration.eventbrite.com/

Remembering Fred Jameson Join the Duke Literature Program for a celebration of the cultural theorist and literary critic Fredric Jameson (1934-2024)

REMEMBERING FRED JAMESON Friday 11/22:

The Literature Program at Duke University invites you to a remembrance and celebration of Fredric Jameson (1934-2024). The program will be followed by drinks and hors d'oeuvres in the East Duke Parlors.

All are welcome. RSVP is NOT required to attend the event. HOWEVER, we encourage you to sign up to help event organizers with headcount and planning: https://jameson-celebration.eventbrite.com/

Remembering Fred Jameson Join the Duke Literature Program for a celebration of the cultural theorist and literary critic Fredric Jameson (1934-2024)

Many are left asking, “What happened this week?” How do we process this consequential election and move forward in a world where many of us feel less safe and less seen? Come and join us for an informal gathering to discuss the election over a simple dinner. Some insights will be offered to start off the discussion from faculty working on topics related to the election and its outcome. Brief reflections will be offered including from FHI Research Professor Wesley Hogan and from Gunther Peck who is an Associate Professor at Sanford School of Public Policy.

This morning’s start to the two-day symposium, “African Studies and Black Studies: Intersections, Genealogies and New Directions,” was off to a great start! This event brings together scholars who think from a number of disciplines to envision the possibilities of intersecting African Studies and Black Studies to develop a global view of Blackness. While they are their own distinct fields with their own trajectories, African Studies and Black Studies have always shared several important concerns, like how racialization relates to state formation and sovereignty, for example. This global view of Blackness acknowledges AND complicates national frameworks as privileged sites of knowledge making while invoking the possibility of GLOBAL BLACK STUDIES. Co-sponsors include our new Black Archival Imagination Lab along with the African Initiative from , our partners at , the Concilium on Southern Africa at the , and our colleagues at . The symposium is until 4p today and from 9a to 1p tomorrow on Saturday, 11/2. JOIN US!

Join us THIS FRIDAY, 11/1 at 9AM as we continue our discussion on the University’s significant investment in the humanities in the 1980’s. Rob Sikorski and Beth Eastlick are in conversation! Sikorski authored or co-authored more than twenty successful grant applications to private foundations like Ford, Mellon, Luce, Rauchenberg, and Gould and to government units like the NEH, the Department of State, and more during his tenure at Duke International Studies. Beth A. Eastlick has 27 years of experience in university development, having raised more than $600 million for Duke! 2024 continues to mark our 25th anniversary here at , which also coincides with ’s 100th. Breakfast food available ☕️

We are honored to have won the Gold Davey Awards for our web series, Left of Black: “Getting recognized by such an accomplished body as the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts helps bring a much-needed light to the scholarship we center in the conversations we have with our guests,” [Mark Anthony Neal] said. “Black Studies is an academic field that has an ever-pressing immediacy to address the ongoing challenges and oppressions faced by the African diaspora. I really wanted to create a platform that ‘loved on’ Black Studies and the Black Arts. And that’s what Left of Black is all about. Getting Gold at the Davey Awards is an excellent way to kick-off this 15th season.”

Black Studies Video Series at Duke Wins Gold in 2024 Davey Awards | Left of Black Left of Black is a weekly video podcast hosted by Duke University Professor Mark Anthony Neal and produced by the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University

NEW on YouTube: During the 1980's and 1990's, the groundwork had been laid to bolster the humanities departments on Duke's campus, making it a top-tier university with a vibrant intellectual community. But the departments were still siloed! Innovation then came in the form of a humanities institute that could serve as an interdisciplinary space to foster new collaborations. That institute would bear the name of a famed Duke historian of African American history and liberation, John Hope Franklin!

The first installment in the FHI at 25 series brought together our institute's joint founders, Cathy N. Davidson (Distinguished Professor of English, CUNY Graduate Center; Ruth F. DeVarney Professor Emerita of Interdisciplinary Studies, Duke) and Karla F. C. Holloway (James B. Duke Professor Emerita of the Duke University English Department), respectively Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Studies and Dean of the Humanities and Social Sciences at the time of FHI's establishment in 1999. Check out their candid conversation!

FHI at 25: Origins and Reflections | A Conversation with Cathy N. Davidson and Karla F.C. Holloway Duke University's John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute (FHI) is 25!Read More Here: https://duke.is/n/jw4uDuring the 1980's and 1990's, the groundwork had ...

📣📯📣📯Spreading the word about DIALOGUE: AN EARLY MODERN SERIES, a set of exchanges on multilingual premodern and early modern cultures. Series starts today (Oct 22, 5pm) with a visit by Ottoman historian Asli Niyazioglu (Oxford University).

Please join us for An Early Modern Series on Tuesday, October 22, 5-7PM Social Sciences 119

The Black Archival Imagination Lab is excited to invite you to our symposium titled, “African Studies and Black Studies: Intersections, Genealogies and New Directions,” on November 1-2. For details and RSVP info, see below or here: https://sites.duke.edu/bail/events/african-studies-and-black-studies-intersections-genealogies-and-new-directions/

African Studies and Black Studies: Intersections, Genealogies and New Directions brings together scholars who think from a numbers of disciplines and transdisciplinarily about the possibilities that come with working at the intersection of African Studies and Black Studies. While they are distinct fields with their own trajectories and genealogies Black Studies and African Studies have historically shared a number of important concerns; particularly around how racialization relates to state formation and sovereignty and how the historical and contemporary experiences of migration and diaspora have shaped the formation of identity, nationally and globally, among African and African descended people. More recently, scholars across these fields have engaged with the planetary crises associated with climate change and the Anthropocene as symptomatic of the ongoing lives of racial capitalism and its colonial remains. This global view of blackness both acknowledges and complicates national frameworks as privileged sites of knowledge-making while invoking the possibility of Global Black Studies.

Dates: Friday, Nov. 1, 9am-4pm, Saturday, Nov. 2, 9am-1pm

Locations: Smith Warehouse, Bay 4, Black Archival Imagination Lab (Fri. morning) and Bay 5, Ahmadieh Family Lecture Hall (Fri. afternoon and Sat.) - (Hybrid - Zoom option as well)

Free breakfast and lunch for participants

RSVP for in-person participation or register for Zoom here: https://sites.duke.edu/bail/events/african-studies-and-black-studies-intersections-genealogies-and-new-directions/

See below for the full program of the symposium.

Symposium Program

Friday, Nov. 1

9:00 – 9:30 Breakfast

9:30 – 10:00 Welcome

10:00 – 11:30 Panel 1

Jordanna Matlon (American University), “Reading hegemony from the African colonial project: Blackness, masculinity, and the évolué”

Sabine Mohamed (Johns Hopkins), “Empire from the South: Between the idea of Ethiopia and the politics of “medemer””

Rafael Cesar (Princeton University), “White Racelessness, Black Voicelessness: On the Need of Black Studies to Study Portuguese-Speaking Africa”

11:30 – 13:00 Panel 2

Sharad Chari (UC Berkeley), “Scenes of Blackness from South African Indian Ocean Shores”

Walter C. Rucker (Emory University), “Theorizing Social Life as Mnemonic Praxis: The Implications of the Early Modern Practice of Diaspora in Atlantic Africa”

Natasha Shivji (University of Cape Town), “Writing a continental history from the ocean: the Indian Ocean and Pan Africanism”

13:00 – 14:00 Lunch

14:00 – 16:00 Panel 3

Tsitsi Jaji and Christopher Ouma (Duke University), “The African Literature Association: A Storied Account of Black Studies”

Errol Henderson (Independent Scholar), “New Directions Wrapped in Old: The Howard School and the Nexus between African and Black Studies”

Kristin Phillips (Emory University), “The Racial Vernacular of Energy Disparities: Othering & Electricity in East Africa & the US South”

Yousuf Al-Bulushi (UC Irvine), “Walter Rodney in Tanzania: The Diaspora and the Continent”

Saturday, Nov. 2

9:00 – 9:30 Breakfast

9:30 – 11:00 Panel 4

Jasmine E. Johnson (University of Pennsylvania), “Africa and Returns: On West African Dance Tourism”

Adanna Ogbona-Oluikpe (Louisiana State University), “Entangled Categories: Blackness, Africanness and Racialized Spaces”

Matthew Omelsky (University of Rochester), “Global Black Speculative Collage”

11:00 – 11:15 Tea break

11:15 – 12:30 Keynote

Kamari Clarke (University of Toronto), “Global Blackness and Its New Frontiers”

12:30pm Lunch

FRIDAY, 10/18 at 9am, FHI 25 | Queering Duke: A Conversation with Mandy Berry, Kathryn Kent, and Jonathan Flatley. Please join us for a lively discussion as we continue our 25th year celebration! This year coincides with the 100th anniversary of . is hosting a series of conversations throughout the year engaging some of the most significant humanities scholars of our time. They will help to historicize the University’s substantial investment in the humanities and to propose future directions of humanistic scholarship and teaching, both at Duke and beyond. JOIN US at the Smith Warehouse!

“In the early 1980’s, Duke was a good regional school with some special areas of strength, but frankly in arts and sciences, it was short of being distinguished,” said Stanley Fish when he spoke with Jane Tompkins at last week’s FHI 25 event. Both came to at a time when the university’s commitment to the arts and humanities had not been fully realized. This dynamic couple sought to, not only advocate for the humanities, but to shift university culture in a seismic way. Tompkins later added, “Duke gave me a chance to grow both as a professor and as a human being. I was a different person when I left Duke 13 years later. I wasn’t as grateful as I should have been at the time, but I am now.” Read more on Duke Today and watch the FULL VIDEO on FHI’s YouTube channel!