DIRECTORS

Dr. WILLIAM TOBIN, JD

Research Fellow and Civil Rights Attorney

William A. Tobin is a research fellow at Duke University. He received a Ph.D. from Stanford University and a J.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Beginning with his time as a consulting attorney under Julius Chambers at the University of North Carolina Law School’s Civil Rights Center his work has been focused on developing collaboratives nationwide that aim to create high quality inclusive educational environments across the K-12/Higher Education spectrum. He has worked with city superintendents, researchers, and college officials to improve college access and success for high school students. At Duke University he directed the American Experience Program in the FOCUS interdisciplinary Program, created and co-directed the honors program in the Department of Sociology, and DukeEngage in Dublin, a summer research and civic engagement program for undergraduates. Prior to coming to Duke he was a tenured Lecturer in Modern History at the National University of Ireland and an elementary school teacher in Boston and Baltimore City. Tobin has published on American History, social science and educational reform. Tools for Change: A Teacher's Guide (with Valerie Feit), a community based, social science research method that enables high school students to solve community problems, is forthcoming from Teachers College Press. His study of education and nationalism, American State Building as Theatre: Making Washington, D.C. a National Center is under review.

DR. SUZANNE SHANAHAN

Director of the Kenan Institute for Ethics, Associate Professor of Sociology

Suzanne Shanahan is Nannerl O. Keohane Director of the Kenan Institute for Ethics and Associate Research Professor in Sociology. Suzanne also directs the Kenan Refugee Project. Her current research focuses on forced migration and moral responsibility. More specifically, Suzanne’s work explores the impact of displacement on refugee well-being and moral boundaries before and after resettlement with particular focus on Bhutanese, Burundian, Congolese Iraqi and Syrian refugees. This community-based research is a collaboration with communities both in the Middle East and with newcomer communities in North Carolina. Other work explores the dynamics of racial collective action in the United States and Europe. She is recipient of the Robert B. Cox Distinguished Teaching Award and the Dean’s Distinguished Service Award. Suzanne received her PhD from Stanford University.