What happens when a research lab’s intellectual inquiry meets the lived realities of a transnational campus? Unlearning Gender on Campus is a student-led public engagement project exploring participatory, community-facing practice.
At Duke Kunshan University, students arrive with diverse cultural backgrounds and distinct assumptions about gender: what is considered “normal” for a girl or a boy varies across cultures, yet these differences are rarely discussed openly. Through their participation in the Harmony Lab, a collaborative research initiative on gender and family harmony in contemporary East Asian societies during the 2025-26 academic year, student members consistently raised questions such as “Where do these expectations come from?” and “How can we change that?” This project treats that gap not as a problem to be solved by top-down policy alone, but as a behavioral and cultural question that demands community-based diagnosis.
Through three interconnected activities (a student-produced podcast, a participatory workshop, and an anonymous story exhibition), the project aims to create a space for students to uncover, share, and reflect on the invisible norms that shape their academic choices, daily interactions, and self-perception. Designed and led by students with faculty mentorship, the initiative transforms personal experience into public discussion, revealing patterned narratives that might otherwise remain unspoken.
