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GLS eNews March 23, 2020

GLS Weekly Update - March 23, 2020

Please note that GLS House is closed until further notice. GLS staff are working remotely and may be reached via email. We will be doing some virtual porch sitting this Thursday from 5-6 PM, though--see the Director's message below for details.

In this edition:

  • Special Message from Director Anne Whisnant
  • Commencement Postponed
  • Graduate School Announces New Grading Policy
  • Call for Submissions: Covid-19 History Archive
  • Online Resources for Graduate Students
  • GLS Bulletin Board: Upcoming Application and Proposal Deadlines

Special Message from the Director

Hello GLS Community— 

Welcome to the new world of Duke University / GLS Online. We in GLS, along with our colleagues across Duke, and around the nation and world, are adjusting to our new virtual existence. One week into working from home, the GLS Staff is getting our workflows re-configured, and our GLS faculty – Kent, Bob, and Amy Laura – are prepared to launch their first week of remote classes. Please bear with us – and we will bear with you! – as we all find our footing in these radically altered times. 

As you know, policies and practices across Duke continue to evolve in response to the coronavirus situation. Probably the most important change since we wrote you last week is the updated Graduate School grading policy, described here. Duke will move to a default S/U (satisfactory-unsatisfactory) stance for spring courses.  

In general, please remember that you can find Duke-wide information about the coronavirus changes at https://coronavirus.duke.edu/ and Graduate School-specific information at https://gradschool.duke.edu/student-life/coronavirus-information. 

Moving away from discussions of policy, I want to think about matters of how we keep community and learning alive while we physically distance ourselves to “flatten the curve” on virus transmission. And on that front, I think there is encouraging news. Last week, I was supposed to be in Atlanta for my most important professional conference of the year, the National Council on Public History (NCPH). The week before, however, at a time when it wasn’t entirely clear what to do, organizational leaders made the wrenching decision to cancel the in-person conference and move as much of it as possible online.  

In less than a week – with heroic work by the NCPH board, staff, and conference participants – a substantial number of sessions, conversations, happy hours, tours, and even the annual awards ceremony – were all migrated to Zoom, Twitter, Google Docs, and YouTube. On Friday, I co-led a conversation on National Park Service historical work. On Saturday, I took an outstanding Zoom-based tour that focused on gentrification and the erasure of African American histories in the Atlanta suburb of Decatur. (Interested? Check it out here.) That evening, I joined a happy hour with nearly 20 colleagues. Today I watched videotaped awards presentations and listened to the outgoing president’s podcasted capstone address. While there were certainly losses in not being able to gather in real time, I was heartened by how much of the core of what makes the NCPH conference wonderful remained intact.  

I think this suggests that the same is the case for Duke in general, and for GLS. Through collective effort, a willingness to experiment, flexibility, patience, and good cheer, I believe we can re-imagine how our community gathers, and how we all keep learning. Your faculty and GLS staff are already doing their part, and I know you will all do yours.  

In that spirit, I’ll be re-instituting weekly GLS (virtual) Porch Sitting starting this Thursday afternoon from 5:00-6:00 PM. I’ll be hosting it in my Zoom Meeting Room. Just grab a glass of whatever you have, come to your comfortable spot, click the link, and join me to chat! We’ll try it the first time this Thursday, March 26th.  Pets welcome! 

Meanwhile, feel free to contact me by email or Microsoft Teams chat if you need to talk.  

 Most of all, take care of yourselves— 

 Anne

Commencement Postponed, New Grading Policy Announced

On March 18 Duke President Vincent E. Price announced that the University has postponed Spring Commencement. We look forward to being able to celebrate our December 2019 and May 2020 graduates in the not too distant future. In the meantime, stay tuned to Duke's Coronavirus Response page as well as the Graduate School-specific information page.

Effective immediately, Spring 2020 graduate courses will transition to a default S/U grading option. If students choose to receive a letter grade for any course, they can do so by submitting a form to the registrar, no later than 5pm EST on the last day of classes or as prescribed by the school where the course is offered.

Online Information Session: Fulbright and Grants Abroad for Graduate Students

MONDAY, MARCH 30, 12:00 - 1:00 PM, via Zoom, https://duke.zoom.us/j/228173136

Get professional or research experience abroad for 6-12 months! Staff from Nationally Competitive Scholarships at Duke will tell you about all you can do around the world with a Fulbright and differentiate the types of grants available. All Duke students and alumni should apply through an on-campus process with deadlines beginning in early summer. Come learn about the possibilities that a Fulbright offers and how Duke can help you develop your strongest application.

Attendees will also receive a quick introduction to other opportunities abroad that may be of interest: Gates Cambridge for further graduate study at Cambridge University, the Luce Scholars Program for an experiential year in Asia for those who have not yet had in-depth experience there, and DAAD awards for research or further graduate work in Germany.

Register here.

This event is part of the 2020 Graduate & Professional Student Appreciation Week. It is co-sponsored by The Graduate School and the Office of University Scholars & Fellows. Questions about this event? Contact The Graduate School's professional development team at grad-profdev@duke.edu.

Help Document Covid-19 History

"Stalls at the French Market Closed." Photo by Greg Lambousy, contributed by Kathryn O'Dwyer.

Public Historians at Northeastern University, Arizona State University, and elsewhere are working together to establish a new digital repository, "A Journal of the Plague Year: the #Covid19Archive." For submission guidelines and other details, visit the Journal's website.

Call for Presentations: Submission Deadline Extended for 2020 AGLSP Conference

If you are interested in giving a presentation or telling a story at the October 2020 conference of the Association of Graduate Liberal Studies Programs (AGLSP), note that they have extended the deadline for proposals. Paper proposals are due by April 1 2020. The deadline for submitting your video for the Story Slam is now April 15, 2020. 

Online Resources for Graduate Students

Opportunities Around Campus and Beyond

Visit the GLS Bulletin Board for a list of funding, volunteer, and other opportunities beyond GLS.

Upcoming deadlines:

April 1• 2020 AGLSP Conference Call for Presentations • call video submissions

April 15 • 2020 AGLSP Conference Story Slam • call video submissions

Important Dates for GLS Students

  • Online Classes Resume - Monday, March 23
  • Fall Bookbagging begins - Monday, March 30
  • Fall Registration begins - Wednesday, April 1
  • Fall Registration ends; Drop/Add begins - Friday, April 10
  • Graduate classes end - Wednesday, April 15
  • Graduate reading period - Thursday-Sunday, April 16-April 26
  • Last day of semester - Saturday, May 2

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