Task Forces

Tenure Standards

We recognize that increasingly diverse forms of scholarship have not been taken into account in our appointment, promotion and tenure processes. While progress has been made on the consideration of interdisciplinary efforts, criteria for rigor and impact in less traditional, alternative, or emerging forms of scholarly expression, including online education, public scholarship, and policy outreach, have not been well defined. The Provost charged a committee in the 2017-18 academic year to re-evaluate the criteria for tenure and promotion to clearly define criteria that reward the many scholarly activities we value as a community.

The committee completed its work in May 2018, and submitted a report to the Provost (linked below) which offers ideas and options for consideration. Implementation plans following from the report are currently being developed.

Doctoral Education

Duke possesses superb professional and graduate programs set in a highly interdisciplinary, liberal arts environment. This combination enables us to seize new opportunities in graduate education so that our graduate and professional students are prepared to navigate a diverse and quickly evolving intellectual and career landscape. In partnership with The Graduate School, in 2017-2018 the Provost convened a university-wide ad hoc committee to re-imagine doctoral education (RiDE) at Duke. The RiDE committee examined how to balance the need to sustain disciplinary excellence with our responsibility to offer PhD training that equips our students to make a difference in a wide array of professional contexts; and to ascertain best practices for developing students’ skills in communication, leadership, and teaching and mentoring, as well as their ability to work effectively in teams, both within and across disciplines.

The ad hoc committee, co-chaired by Edward Balleisen and Susan Lozier, completed its work in December 2018, and submitted a report to the Provost (linked below) which offers ideas and options for consideration.

The Provost then convened the Reimagining Doctoral Education (RiDE) Implementation Committee in April 2019, to begin moving forward on select recommendations from the report. The full list of committee membership, and updates on their work, are available here.