Duke University Center for International Studies

The Duke University Center for International Studies (DUCIS) is the anchoring unit for two major campus innovations: the current John Hope Center for Interdisciplinary and International Studies and the planned Central Campus, which will bring international programs together with language, literature and culture departments and visual art departments and programs. The International Comparative Studies major is our undergraduate degree and DUCIS will launch a new Master of Arts (M.A.) degree in the next two years.

In the current cycle, we propose to support Persian, Polish, Romanian, Turkish, and Wolof. Duke has a substantial array of disciplines and a tradition of fostering interdisciplinary collaborations in and out of the classroom. Duke has over 230 regular rank faculty who teach at least one course that has a content of 50% or more international or comparative.

Our approach has been to organize our activities around three themes: democracy and governance, global health, and emerging regional powers. The global health theme is of particular interest as it bridges the traditional university/medical center divide.
Duke's library has a new wing with one floor devoted to international and area studies. We house 2.8 million volumes and 10,000 current serials that are directly related to international and area studies.

Of particular note in our outreach are the global health seminar, which will offer CMEs and the participation in the planning of a five county international high school.
In the coming funding cycle we would hope to maintain our ability to foster creative linkages across schools and disciplines and to take the interdisciplinary approach to a wider audience.