The New Culture Wars: Romantic Expressivism and the Reconfiguration of Political Conflict
Liberal democracies are growing increasingly divided — yet what drives these divides remains widely debated. Previous scholarship framed cultural conflicts as binaries: secular modernists vs religious traditionalists, highly educated post-materialist youth vs older cultural conservatives, or cosmopolitan “Anywheres” vs communitarian “Somewheres”. In this talk, Prof. Galen Watts will offer a new cultural sociological framework. He […]
October 14th | Film Society | Gattaca
What if your genes decided what you could become before you even had a chance to try? This week, hosted by Professor Seth Henderson, DKU Film Society invites you to the screening of Gattaca (1997). Directed by Andrew Niccol, Gattaca takes place in a future where your genetic makeup determines your place in society. Vincent […]
Exhibition | The Condition of Being Near
“The Condition of Being Near” is a research, and publication project developed by curators Zairong Xiang (Duke Kunshan University) and Denise Ryner (ICA University of Pennsylvania) with a focus on historical and social circumstances of solidarity between Black, African and Chinese (diasporic) communities. Video projections, installations, prints and archival reproductions by nine artists are organized […]
READING WITH AWARD-WINNING POET, JANE HIRSHFIELD
October 26, 2026丨Water Pavillion | 5:15 PM Jane Hirshfield, writing “some of the most important poetry in the world today” (The New York Times Magazine), is the much-honored author of ten books of poetry, two now-classic books of essays on poetry’s deep infrastructure workings, and four books presenting world poets from the deep past. Translated […]
October 14 | Exhibition | Fans of Good Women: Lady Windermere and Its Cultural Translation
Join us on Wednesday, October 14 at 6pm in the HUM Space for the launch of the Fans of Good Women: Lady Windermere and Its Cultural Translation exhibit, followed by a short performance at 6:30 pm. Presented by Prof. Hui Yao and a group of students from DKU Curtain Call Drama Club, the event explores how […]
Student Report | Game and Interactive Narrative Lab | Opening & Mixer
Reported by Ankh-Od Otgonbat (Class of 2029) Bottles of tonic water were waiting for event participants at the Performance Cafe. Why? Because it’s the opening mixer of GIN Lab — Game and Interactive Narrative Lab! The evening opened with remarks from Prof. Selina Lai Henderson, who spoke about how the humanities are becoming more and […]
September 30th | Film Society | Arrival
What if time isn’t something we move through, but something we can see? ⏳ This Wednesday, DKU Film Society presents to you the movie Arrival (2016), directed by Denis Villeneuve. The film follows Louise Banks, a linguist the military recruits when twelve alien spacecraft appear around the world. Her job is to talk to them. […]
September 23rd | Film Society | Blade Runner & Blade Runner 2049
What does it mean to be human? This week, DKU Film Society invites you to a special screening of Blade Runner (1982) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017). Directed by Ridley Scott, Blade Runner takes us to a dark, futuristic Los Angeles where artificial humans known as replicants live alongside people. Rick Deckard, a former blade […]
Prof. Erin Wilkerson’s Film heads to Chicago Underground Film Festival!
On the southern border of Europe, where the Silk Road once met the Adriatic, a woman struggles to protect what remains of a dying world. Blending history, memory, and speculative fiction, this richly layered meditation traces the intertwined legacies of ecology, anti-fascist resistance, and post-Yugoslav transformation, revealing the land itself as an enduring archive of […]
Student Report | Concert & Roundtable Discussion: To the Fleeting Water Say｜告潺潺流水
Reported by Alexandra Aliu (Class of 2029) “To the Fleeting Water Say” serves as both the world premiere of Professor Maximiliano Amici’s new chamber music composition and the closing event for the Humanities Research Center (HRC) exhibition Feeling into Form: Art, Movement and the Making of Empathy. The performance draws inspiration from the Yijing (I […]
