The Harmony Humanities Lab (HHL) bridges the gap between ancient wisdom and modern challenges, fostering cross-cultural, interdisciplinary conversations within and beyond the Duke community. Our team of scholars, students, and researchers engages in research, pedagogical, and outreach projects that uncover, document, and raise public awareness about sources of disharmony that impact contemporary society—from mental health crises and cancel culture to capitalist imperialism and climate change denial.
The lab is guided by three core principles: cross-disciplinarity, collaboration, and constructiveness. As a center for interdisciplinary research and teaching, the Harmony Lab unites scholars working on related themes from diverse approaches, including philosophy (David Wong and Wenjin Liu), religion (Anna Sun), ecology (James Miller, DKU), medicine (Gopal Sreenivasan), politics (Michael Gillespie), and cognitive sciences (Ting Fung Ho, post-doc at Duke). By fostering dialogue across these fields, the lab promotes meaningful exchange and synergy among varied disciplines and methodologies.
The Harmony Lab also supports university-wide, regional, and international collaboration by strengthening existing research groups and facilitating new partnerships across projects, initiatives, departments, and campuses. For instance, it provides essential resources to revitalize the Duke Center for Comparative Philosophy, a globally recognized hub for innovative research and courses in comparative philosophy, an area in which Duke consistently ranks No. 1 worldwide. Furthermore, the lab intersects productively with ongoing FHI projects like Entanglement, promoting research and teaching on pressing topics such as climate change and race.
