GLS eNews October 15, 2021
GLS Biweekly Update - October 15, 2021
The GLS staff currently are working a hybrid schedule. Email and phone (GLS main number - 919-684-3222) remain the best way to reach us.
Attention, students: Join Anne this Monday, October 18, from 4:30-5:30 PM for a special students-only porch sitting session. No RSVP--just come on over and sit a spell if you can. We'll have some light refreshments on hand.
Three New LS Courses Offered This Spring
We're excited to announce three new courses for Spring 2022. Check out the video previews below. Shopping carts open this Monday, October 18, and registration begins on Wednesday, October 27.
LS 770-45 The Art of Storytelling
Instructor: Michelle Dove
Wednesdays 6-9 PM
GLS House, 2114 Campus Drive
Click here for course description.
LS 780-93 Critical Digital Knowledge: Seeing Data Bodies and Practicing the Future
Instructor: Amanda Starling Gould
Mondays, 2-5 PM
GLS House, 2114 Campus Drive, and online
Click here for course description.
LS 760-39 Protecting Nature in a World of People: Protected Areas, Economic Development and Tourism
Instructor: Robert Healy
Tuesdays, 6-9 PM
GLS House, 2114 Campus Drive
Click here for course description.
GLS Alum John Bechtold Presents Work of Iraqi Photographers
John Bechtold (MALS 2017), a US Army veteran and artist, has curated From Fallujah, a group photography exhibit featuring the work of emerging Iraqi photographers.
John describes this visual exhibit is an extension of his critical work as a Ph.D. candidate in the American Studies program at UNC-CH. "I'm researching and writing about the representation of war in American culture, where I argue that modes of commemoration configure veterans as heroic victims of violence. In general, this martial logic (as I think of it) requires the erasure of occupied citizens whose presence in our visual field may challenge the formation of the soldier subject. With this in mind, "From Fallujah" literally seeks to install an Iraqi perspective in an American space."
The opening reception will be held on October 9, 2021 from 3 PM to 6 PM at PS118 Gallery & Event Space in Durham. John will speak at PS118 on Thursday, October 21, and a remote panel discussion about the project is scheduled for October 24 at 2 PM in conjunction with the "Click!" photography festival.
Professor Chris Sims Discusses New Documentary Work
Professor Chris Sims, currently teaching the GLS seminar Documentary Explorations, will present an artist talk and gallery viewing based on his new book The Pretend Villages (Kehrer Verlag and CDS Books of the Center for Documentary Studies, 2021). The event will take place at 6 PM, November 4, in Rubenstein Library Photography Gallery and Perkins Library Room 217. The exhibit runs from October 23, 2021-February 27, 2022.
In this exhibit, The Pretend Villages documents the inhabitants and structures of imagined, fabricated Iraqi and Afghan villages on the training grounds of U.S. military bases. Situated in the deep forests of North Carolina and Louisiana and in a great expanse of desert near Death Valley in California, these villages serve as strange and poignant way stations for soldiers headed off to war, and for those who have fled from it: American troops encounter actors, often recent immigrants from Iraq and Afghanistan, who are paid to be “cultural role players.” Christopher Sims photographed in these surprising and fantastical realms from 2005 to 2018 as U.S. wars abroad fluctuated in intensity. With this book, he presents an archival record of “enemy” village life that is as convincingly accurate and comically misdirected as it is mundane and nightmarish.
Christopher Sims is an Associate Professor of the Practice in the Sanford School of Public Policy and the Undergraduate Education Director at the Center for Documentary Studies.
Professor Charlie Thompson Brings Award-Winning Documentary to Durham
GLS is pleased to co-sponsor the Durham premiere of Rock Castle Home, an award-winning documentary by Charles D. Thompson, Professor of the Practice of Cultural Anthropology and Documentary Studies at Duke. The films makes its Durham debut at the Nasher Museum of Art on Thursday, November 11, 2021, 7:00 to 9:00 PM, and features live music by the renowned New Macedon Rangers. You'll recall that this past spring Professor Thompson taught the GLS seminar Migrations: Pilgrims, Immigrants, Refugees, and Tourists - A Study of Humanity through Movement.
Rock Castle Home presents the story of farming families displaced by the development of the Blue Ridge Parkway in the 1930s. Along with GLS, other sponsors are the Kenan Institute for Ethics, Department of Cultural Anthropology, Duke Service-Learning, the Ormond Center at Duke Divinity, MFA in the Experimental and Documentary Arts, and the Center for Documentary Studies.
Masks are required and Duke Covid protocols observed for this event.
SPREAD THE WORD! Graduate Liberal Studies holds online information sessions for prospective students every Friday morning at 10 AM EST. These sessions, which last about an hour, are the best way to learn more about the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies degree at Duke University. GLS staff members are available to discuss degree requirements, the application and admissions process, and more. Click here for registration details.
Important Dates for GLS Students
Friday, October 15 - Deadline to apply for December graduation
Monday, October 18 - Spring 2022 shopping carts open
Friday, October 22 - Deadline to submit spring Master's Project Proposal
Wednesday, October 27 - Spring 2022 registration begins
Campus Calendars
Check out the links below for events happening across Duke.
Franklin Humanities Institute (FHI)
Department of Art, Art History & Visual Studies (AAHVS)
Department of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies (AMES)
Department of Gender, Sexuality & Feminists Studies
Department of International Comparative Studies (ICS)
Online Resources for Graduate Students
- COVID-19 updates for students are available on Duke's Coronavirus Response website.
- Graduate School-specific COVID-19 updates are posted here.
- The Duke Student Assistance Fund was established better support master's students who may be experiencing difficulty providing for their basic needs during this extraordinary time.
- Blue Devils Care is a new mental telehealth service that can provide support wherever you may be located currently. You can access the service by using the key DUKE2020.
- The Duke Career Hub offers career support, content, and resources.