Center for Documentary Studies

Undergraduate courses in Documentary Studies are open to Duke University students. Students enrolled at other universities in the North Carolina Triangle area—the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill, North Carolina Central University, and North Carolina State University—may also take these courses for credit. Students may complete a Certificate in Documentary Studies. As part of its undergraduate education program, CDS coordinates the Lehman Brady Visiting Joint Chair Professorship"Pioneering scholar to address country music culture." March 21, 2000. UNC Office of University Communications. https://www.unc.edu/news/archives/mar00/malone032100.htm in Documentary Studies and American Studies at Duke and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which brings a documentarian to teach on both campuses each year. Past Lehman Brady Professors have included Deborah Willis,{{Cite web |date=2000-09-01 |title=Professor to Boost Duke Studies of Visual Culture |url=https://today.duke.edu/2000/09/viscult901.html |access-date=2023-11-15 |website=Duke Today |language=en}} Allan Gurganus,{{Cite web |date=2004-10-06 |title=Writer Allan Gurganus Named Lehman Brady Professor at Duke, UNC-CH; Reading Scheduled Oct. 28 |url=https://today.duke.edu/2004/10/gurganus_1004.html |access-date=2023-11-15 |website=Duke Today |language=en}} and Marco Williams,{{Cite web |title=Meet Marco Williams, A Filmmaker Unafraid To Make You Uncomfortable |url=https://www.wunc.org/show/the-state-of-things/2015-02-02/meet-marco-williams-a-filmmaker-unafraid-to-make-you-uncomfortable |access-date=2023-11-15 |website=WUNC |language=en}} among others. CDS offers several undergraduate awards and fellowships.

CDS offers continuing education courses in the documentary arts through onsite and online classes, summer intensives, and weekend workshops. The open-admissions program includes the option of completing a Certificate in Documentary Arts;{{Cite web |title=Certificates {{!}} Trinity College of Arts & Sciences |url=https://trinity.duke.edu/undergraduate/certificates |access-date=2023-11-15 |website=trinity.duke.edu}} a two-year distance-learning certificate track is available for non-local students.

CDS cofounded—with the Department of Art, Art History, and Visual Studies and the Arts of the Moving Image Program—Duke University’s first Master of Fine Arts program, the MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts (MFA|EDA).{{Cite web |last= |first= |title=Master of Fine Arts in Experimental and Documentary Arts {{!}} The Graduate School |url=https://gradschool.duke.edu/academics/programs-degrees/master-fine-arts-experimental-and-documentary-arts/ |access-date=2023-11-15 |website=gradschool.duke.edu |language=en}} The two-year course of study brings together the documentary approach with experimental production in analog, digital, and computational media. Former CDS director Tom Rankin is the current director of the MFA|EDA."The Future of Documentary Education: Inside Three New College Programs." Sept. 5, 2013. Public Broadcasting Station (PBS). [https://web.archive.org/web/20150910025415/http://www.pbs.org/pov/blog/news/2013/09/the-future-of-documentary-mfa-mit-opendoclab-duke-loyola-marymount/]

CDS’s competitive awards for documentarians include the Dorothea Lange–Paul Taylor Prize (Lange-Taylor Prize){{Cite web |title=2018 Dorothea Lange-Paul Taylor Prize |url=https://theartguide.com/callforartist/2018-dorothea-lange-paul-taylor-prize |access-date=2023-11-15 |website=The Art Guide |language=en-US}} for projects that rely on the interplay of words and images, the Documentary Essay Prize{{Cite web |title=2018 CDS Documentary Essay Prize in Photography |url=https://www.photocontestinsider.com/2018-cds-documentary-essay-prize-in-photography/ |access-date=2023-11-15 |website=PCI |language=en-US}} for documentary photography or writing, the CDS/Honickman First Book Prize in Photography{{Cite web |title=CALL FOR ENTRIES: CDS/Honickman First Book Prize in Photography |url=https://daylightbooks.org/blogs/news/17199965-call-for-entries-cds-honickman-first-book-prize-in-photography |access-date=2023-11-15 |website=Daylight Books}} for North American photographers who have never published a book-length work before, the CDS Filmmaker Award{{Cite web |title=2018 Award Winners |url=https://www.fullframefest.org/news/2018-award-winners/ |access-date=2023-11-15 |website=Full Frame Documentary Film Festival |language=en-US}} for artists in competition at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and, for undergraduates, the John Hope Franklin Student Documentary Awards and the Julia Harper Day Award. Notable recent winners of the Julia Day Harper Award include Rebekah Fergusson and David Delaney Mayer.{{Cite web|url=https://documentarystudies.duke.edu/classes/undergraduate/awards-fellowships/julia-harper-day|title=Julia Harper Day Award {{!}} Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University|website=documentarystudies.duke.edu|access-date=2019-05-20}}

CDS presents documentary work through exhibitions in its gallery spaces and through CDS Books, a publishing program that includes photographic monographs as well as a series in Documentary Arts and Culture in association with the University of North Carolina Press.{{Cite web |title=Documentary Arts and Culture |url=https://uncpress.org/series/documentary-arts-culture/ |access-date=2023-11-15 |website=University of North Carolina Press |language=en-US}} CDS has published books by winners of the CDS/Honickman First Book Prize in Photography in association with Duke University Press."Center for Documentary Studies/Honickman First Book Prize in Photography." Duke University Press. 2018. https://www.dukeupress.edu/Catalog/ProductList.php?viewby=series&id=25

The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival is an annual four-day event in Durham, North Carolina dedicated to the exhibition of nonfiction cinema. Full Frame also presents documentary films in other venues throughout the year and has educational programs for students and teachers.Williams, Roger Ross. "Documentary Filmmaking Has a Race Problem, and This Festival May Have the Solution." IndieWire. Aug 14, 2017. The festival was launched in 1998 by Nancy Buirski in association with CDS, and then called the DoubleTake Documentary Film Festival. In 2002 it became an independent nonprofit and changed its name to the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival.{{Cite web |date=2002-09-01 |title=Doubletake Goes Full Frame: But Nonfiction is Still the Name of the Game |url=https://www.documentary.org/feature/doubletake-goes-full-frame-nonfiction-still-name-game |access-date=2023-11-15 |website=International Documentary Association |language=en}} It again became a CDS program in 2010."Full Frame Documentary Festival Returns to its Roots." Filmnc: North Carolina Film Office. Sep 1, 2010. https://www.filmnc.com/news/458/110/Full-Frame-Documentary-Festival-Returns-to-its-Roots.html{{Cite web |title=Archive of Documentary Arts (Duke University) - Social Networks and Archival Context |url=https://snaccooperative.org/ark:/99166/w6838gf0 |access-date=2023-11-15 |website=snaccooperative.org}} Full Frame is a qualifying event for nominations for the Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject){{Cite web |last=Hanna |first=Beth |date=2013-02-22 |title=Full Frame Documentary Film Festival Chosen as Oscar-Qualifying in Documentary Short Category |url=https://www.indiewire.com/awards/industry/full-frame-documentary-film-festival-chosen-as-oscar-qualifying-in-documentary-short-category-199316/ |access-date=2023-11-15 |website=IndieWire |language=en-US}} and the Producers Guild of America Awards.{{Cite web |date=2023-11-14 |title=Film |url=https://www.indiewire.com/t/film/ |access-date=2023-11-15 |website=IndieWire |language=en-US}}

==Scene on Radio podcast==

Center for Documentary Studies audio director John Biewen launched the organization’s Scene on Radio podcast in 2015 with a stated goal of exploring American society. The podcast is distributed to radio by the Public Radio Exchange.{{Cite web| title = PRX » Series » Scene On Radio| work = PRX - Public Radio Exchange| accessdate = 2019-03-10| url = https://exchange.prx.org/series/34597-scene-on-radio}}

• Season 1 - Contested covers topics relating to sports.
• Season 2 - Seeing White explores the notion of whiteness, the roots of white supremacy, and how racism operates today.Ober, Lauren. "9 Favorite New Podcasts Of 2017 (That Aren't 'S-Town')." National Public Radio. Dec. 21, 2017. https://www.npr.org/2017/12/21/572035055/9-favorite-new-podcasts-of-2017-that-arent-s-townMcDonald, Glenn. "More than entertainment, Duke is embracing podcast medium to tackle issues and tell university stories." The News & Observer. Nov. 12, 2017. http://www.newsobserver.com/entertainment/arts-culture/article184249143.html{{Cite web |last=Steinert-Evoy |first=Sophia |date=2018-02-22 |title=An Interview with John Biewen |url=https://podcastreview.org/interview/john-biewen/ |access-date=2023-11-15 |website=Podcast Review |language=en-US}} This was nominated for a 2017 Peabody Award.Blanchard, Margaret. "Highlighting the Best Storytelling of 2017." Peabody Awards. Apr. 10, 2018. http://www.peabodyawards.com/stories/story/highlighting-the-best-storytelling-of-2017{{Cite web |title=Scene on Radio: Seeing White |url=https://peabodyawards.com/award-profile/seeing-white/ |access-date=2023-11-15 |website=The Peabody Awards |language=en-US}}
• Season 3 - MEN covers topics relating to masculinity and patriarchy.
• Season 4 - The Land That Never Has Been Yet is about democracy in the US.
• Season 5 - The Repair examines climate change.

One of CDS’s oldest initiatives, Literacy Through Photography (LTP), was developed by Wendy Ewald in partnership with CDS and the Durham Public Schools. Ewald also developed an LTP program in Houston."Literacy Through Photography: The FotoFest Learning Program." http://home.fotofest.org/ltp-learning-program.aspx#.Wvnd5NMvxBx The LTP teaching methodology challenges students to explore their world using photography and to use the images as a stimulus for verbal and written expression. An LTP undergraduate course at CDS includes working with children in local schools.{{Cite web |last= |first= |title=Literacy Through Photography - Contexts |url=https://contexts.org/articles/literacy-through-photography/ |access-date=2023-11-15 |language=en}} Through the DukeEngage program, undergraduates can participate in an LTP program created by CDS staff in Arusha, Tanzania, that trains Tanzanian teachers in LTP’s philosophy and methodology and works with Tanzanian students on classroom photography and writing projects."Fostering learning through pictures, particupation, and problem solving."

https://dukeengage.duke.edu/program/tanzania-ltp/ {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180201102422/https://dukeengage.duke.edu/program/tanzania-ltp/ |date=2018-02-01 }} LTP staff also conduct workshops at home and abroad.

Lewis Hine Documentary Fellows Program is named after the social-reform photographer Lewis W. Hine and places young documentarians in fellowships with humanitarian organizations focused on the needs of children and their communities.The Philanthropic Initiative. Jun. 2, 2010. http://www.tpi.org/blog/can-pictures-and-stories-create-social-change

CDS’s Documentary Diversity Project is a three-year pilot program aimed at bringing more people of color into the documentary arts field.{{Cite web |date=2018-01-24 |title=New MacArthur Foundation Grant Supports the Center for Media & Social Impact |url=https://www.american.edu/soc/news/cmsi-comedy-storytelling-diversity-social-change.cfm |access-date=2023-11-15 |website=American University |language=en}}Wiggins, Lori D. R. "There's a local push for more diversity in the film industry." The News & Observer. July 14, 2017. http://www.newsobserver.com/entertainment/arts-culture/article161379683.html Emerging artists (18–24) and post-MFA fellows from underrepresented groups have long term, living-wage residencies to work on developing their skills and projects. The pilot, which started in 2017, is made possible in part by the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust.{{Cite web |title=Scholars@Duke grant: Documentary Diversity Project |url=https://scholars.duke.edu/grant/232443 |access-date=2023-11-15 |website=scholars.duke.edu}}

The SNCC Digital Gateway is a documentary website that was created as part of a partnership between CDS, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Legacy Project, and Duke University Libraries.{{Cite web |title=SNCC Digital Gateway |url=https://snccdigital.org/ |access-date=2023-11-15 |website=SNCC Digital Gateway |language=en}} The site explores SNCC as an organization and how it worked to organize a grassroots movement in the 1960s around voting rights that has relevance today.{{Cite web |title=Emergence of Black Power: Roots |url=https://snccdigital.org/our-voices/emergence-black-power/roots/ |access-date=2023-11-15 |website=SNCC Digital Gateway |language=en}} A stated aim of the site is to make SNCC’s experiences and strategies accessible to activists, educators, students, and engaged citizens. The gateway was made possible by the support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, including a series of critical oral histories with civil rights veterans, historians, and others on the Black Power movement. A second series of oral histories, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities,"The 1965 Voting Rights Act and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee." National Endowment for the Humanities. 2018. https://apps.neh.gov/publicquery/main.aspx?f=1&gn=RZ-255733-17 will focus on the work that led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Through a 2017–18 publishing partnership with the Oxford American magazine, CDS contributes stories to the magazine’s online series, The By and By."The By and By." Oxford American: A Magazine of the South. https://www.oxfordamerican.org/itemlist/category/181-the-by-and-by CDS’s contributions feature work by its faculty, students, and affiliated artists.

Several of CDS’s previous projects and initiatives include the Behind the Veil oral history project that documented African American life in the Jim Crow South;Chafe, William H., et al. Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Tell about Life in the Segregated South. The New Press, 2014.{{Cite web |title=Behind the Veil / Digital Collections / Duke Digital Repository |url=https://repository.duke.edu/dc/behindtheveil |access-date=2023-11-15 |website=Duke Digital Collections |language=en}} the Jazz Loft Project based on photographs and tapes made by W. Eugene Smith,{{Cite web |title=The Underground Story of Photographer W. Eugene Smith and the Jazz Loft is Told in a New Multimedia Exhibition at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts |url=https://www.nypl.org/press/underground-story-photographer-w-eugene-smith-and-jazz-loft-told-new-multimedia-exhibition |access-date=2023-11-15 |website=The New York Public Library |language=en}}Fishko, Sara. "Tales of the Tape: Introducing the Jazz Loft." National Public Radio. Dec 5, 2009. https://www.npr.org/2009/12/05/121113662/tales-of-the-tape-introducing-the-jazz-loft which resulted in a book,{{Cite web |date=2023-11-15 |title=Home |url=https://www.jazzloftproject.org/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090923041922/http://www.jazzloftproject.org/ |url-status=usurped |archive-date=September 23, 2009 |access-date=2023-11-15 |website=Jazz loft project |language=en-US}} a radio series with WNYC,{{Cite web |date=2023-11-15 |title=Home |url=https://www.jazzloftproject.org/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090923041922/http://www.jazzloftproject.org/ |url-status=usurped |archive-date=September 23, 2009 |access-date=2023-11-15 |website=Jazz loft project |language=en-US}} and a national touring exhibition;"About the Exhibition." Jazz Loft Project. http://www.jazzloftproject.org/index.php?s=exhibition and Indivisible: Stories of American Community, a national photography and audio initiative that included the work of photographers Dawoud Bey, Bill Burke, Debbie Fleming Caffery, Lucy Capehart, Lynn Davis, Terry Evans, Lauren Greenfield, Joan Liftin, Reagan Louie, Danny Lyon, Sylvia Plachy, and Eli Reed and resulted in a book and national touring exhibition.

The Behind the Veil project was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Lyndhurst Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Devonwood Foundation, and the graduate schools at Duke University and the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill. Both the Jazz Loft Project and Indivisible were in partnership with the University of Arizona’s Center for Creative Photography.{{Cite web |title=Indivisible: Stories of American Community |url=https://www.tfaoi.org/aa/2aa/2aa399.htm |access-date=2023-11-15 |website=www.tfaoi.org}}{{Cite web |date=2001-08-17 |title=CCP Exhibits American Community |url=https://news.arizona.edu/story/ccp-exhibits-american-community |access-date=2023-11-15 |website=University of Arizona News |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Indivisible: Stories of American Community records, 1999-2002, 1988-2002, bulk 1999-2002 - Archives & Manuscripts at Duke University Libraries |url=https://archives.lib.duke.edu/catalog/cdsindivisible |access-date=2023-11-15 |website=David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library |language=en}} The Jazz Loft Project was funded by the Reva and David Logan Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, and the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Indivisible was funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

CDS published DoubleTake magazine from 1995–1999 with major support from the Lyndhurst Foundation. Robert Coles and Alex Harris were the founding editors of the quarterly publication, which featured photography and writing.{{Cite news |last=Sack |first=Kevin |date=1996-04-22 |title=Gift Saves an Unusual Journal |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/22/business/gift-saves-an-unusual-journal.html |access-date=2023-11-15 |issn=0362-4331}} The magazine won a National Magazine Award for General Excellence in 1998."Winners and Finalists Database." American Society of Magazine Editors. http://www.magazine.org/asme/national-magazine-awards/winners-finalists {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181010181823/http://magazine.org/asme/national-magazine-awards/winners-finalists |date=2018-10-10 }} In 1999, the magazine became an independent nonprofit and moved to Somerville, Massachusetts. DoubleTake announced its closing in 2004.{{Cite web |title=Seeing Double {{!}} Arts {{!}} The Harvard Crimson |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2003/3/14/seeing-double-when-doubletake-magazine-was/ |access-date=2023-11-15 |website=www.thecrimson.com}}Reischel, Julia. "The lights go out at DoubleTake." Somerville News. Jan 6, 2005. http://somervillenews.typepad.com/the_somerville_news/2005/01/the_lights_go_o.html

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