Program Overview

Introduction to the Kenan Institute for Ethics

The Kenan Institute for Ethics is a leading institution dedicated to advancing the understanding and practice of ethics in various fields. The institute offers a range of programs and initiatives that foster critical thinking, moral reflection, and community engagement.

About the Institute

• The institute is guided by its director and supported by the Kenan Charitable Trust.
• The Kenan Fund for Ethics plays a crucial role in promoting ethics-oriented research and projects.
• The institute has a diverse community of staff, faculty fellows, graduate fellows, undergraduate fellows, and undergraduate assistants who contribute to its mission.

Programs for Students

Undergraduates

• Pre-orientation programs: Gateway
• First-year programs:
  • FOCUS — Free for All: Freedom, Justice, and Citizenship
  • FOCUS — It’s Not Too Late to Build a Better World
• Second-year programs:
  • Pursuing Purpose
  • Transformative Ideas
• Certificate programs:
  • Carceral Studies Certificate
  • Ethics & Society Certificate
• Community engagement opportunities:
  • DukeEngage
• Fellowships:
  • Brodhead Service Program
  • Chelsea Decaminada Memorial Fellowship
  • Kenan Summer Fellows
  • Re-Imagining Medicine
• Groups:
  • Living/Learning Community

Graduate Students

• Fellowships:
  • Graduate Arts Fellowship
  • Teaching on Purpose

Engagement Initiatives

• DukeEngage
• Community-Engaged Programs:
  • America’s Hallowed Ground
  • Prison Engagement Initiative
  • RISE-US: Research for Indigenous Studies & Engagement in the United States
• Engaging the Broader Public:
  • Democracy and the Politics of American Higher Education
  • Ethics of Now
  • Scene on Radio

Research Areas

• Laboratory for Social Choreography
• Moral Attitudes and Decisions Lab
• RISE-US: Research for Indigenous Studies & Engagement in the United States
• Worldview Lab

Graduate Arts Fellowship

The Graduate Arts Fellowship supports the generation and exhibition of ethics-oriented work at the leading edge of documentary practice. Offered to students entering their second year of Duke’s MFA|EDA program, the fellowship provides resources, mentorship, and opportunities for engagement with the faculty, fellows, staff, and students at the Kenan Institute for Ethics over the course of an academic year. The fellowship comes with a stipend that supplements any other funding the student is already receiving.

Past Kenan Graduate Arts Fellows

• Caitlin Margaret Kelly: Curated The Icon Industry: The Visual Rhetoric of Human Rights and worked on an interactive project around global migration.
• Felicity Palma: Presented Zyz, a film photography and short video exhibit exploring the influence of various cultures in Palermo, Sicily.
• Rachel Jessen: Presented an exhibition documenting the complicated moral narratives of backyard wrestling in the American Southeast.
• Salima Al-Ismaili: Presented Nests of the Nu Ahong, a multimedia exhibition visiting women’s mosques in China’s Henan province.
• Alex Cunningham: Presented Shifting Water: Lenses on Mythology and Environmental Change in India, a multimedia exhibition examining the impact of global climate change on the sacred rivers of India.
• Aaron Kutnick: Created new works for an exhibition entitled at the Kenan Keohane Gallery examining how algorithms shape our narratives.