Duke University’s culture of interdisciplinary collaboration attracts exceptional faculty and students, adds a critical dimension to teaching and promotes study at the frontiers of research.
Learn moreInterdisciplinary research at Duke takes many forms and can range from a single scholar to a broad team of investigators expanding the frontiers of knowledge.
Today’s challenges demand new forms of expertise. Duke’s approach gives students opportunities to explore issues across disciplines, departments and methods.
The interdisciplinary experience at Duke goes beyond the classroom and laboratory as faculty and students work to put knowledge in the service of society.
To strengthen his dissertation research on the Sufi spiritual movement, History doctoral student Daanish Faruqi traveled to Jordan and Turkey to help Syrian refugee communities through relief foundations operated by Sufi networks. He was among 19 Duke students who received Graduate Student Training Enhancement Grants (GSTEG) in 2016-17 for training beyond their core disciplines. His […]
Mark River is a Ph.D. candidate at the Nicholas School of the Environment working in the Duke University Wetland Center. For his dissertation research on how phosphorus is transported by particles in stormwater, he wanted to tap into the resources at Virginia Tech’s National Center for Earth and Environmental Nanotechnology Infrastructure (NanoEarth). River was among […]
What do managers of coral reefs need to know about coral restoration methods before they start new restoration projects? Elizabeth Shaver, a Ph.D. candidate in Marine Science and Conservation at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment, set out to answer this question in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and The Nature Conservancy. […]
Eight months before defending her dissertation on the effects of genetic variation on signaling dynamics, Biology student Selcan Aydin spent two weeks in San Diego building skills needed for the modeling and data analysis challenges of her research. She was among 19 Duke students who received Graduate Student Training Enhancement Grants (GSTEG) in 2016-17 for […]
Duke School of Medicine student Banafsheh Sharif-Askary received a grant to start the Health, Advocacy and Readiness for Teens (HART) program with partners Bull City Fit and Healthy Lifestyles. The program aims to equip young people with tools and resources to help them lead healthier lives and learn behaviors that will continue into adulthood. She […]
Last year, Art History doctoral student Jung E. Choi received a grant to develop a local art festival, “Like Project 2016,” at the SlowSlowQuickQuick alternative space in Seoul, South Korea. Her aim was to nurture community self-help in deprived urban neighborhoods and to inform her dissertation on the intersection of art, technology and space. She […]
This summer, General Surgery Resident Dr. Shanna Sprinkle is leading a team of Duke undergraduates in building a new educational database for Duke Surgery’s residency programs. The database will enable program directors to evaluate key performance metrics for residents and will serve as a valuable tool for surgical education research. “In order to improve resident […]
Danica Schaffer-Smith, a Ph.D. candidate in the Nicholas School of the Environment, received a grant to participate in a week-long workshop on environmental data analytics in Boulder, Colorado, offered by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON). The technical knowledge she gained will inform her dissertation on spatiotemporal variability […]