Get to Know Manoj Mohanan, Duke’s Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Programs

When Manoj Mohanan (pronounced muh-NŌJ mo-huh-nun) became Duke’s vice provost for interdisciplinary programs on July 1, he brought with him an academic path that has crossed medicine, public health, economics and public policy. As the fall semester got underway, Mohanan discussed the collaborative culture that drew him to Duke, the role interdisciplinary work can play in addressing complex challenges and his advice for students looking to make a difference.

Duke has been your intellectual home for 17 years. What made you want to take on the role of vice provost for interdisciplinary programs? 

Part of the reason why I came to Duke was the interdisciplinary culture that we have here. I’ve benefited so much over these last 17 years from the institutional support Duke provides for interdisciplinary research, and from the inputs and advice I’ve received from colleagues from different disciplines. 

Now I have this opportunity to give back to Duke and build on the amazing success we’ve had so far. Our senior leaders often say Duke is known for its interdisciplinary programs, that this is our “secret sauce.” It’s a privilege to step in and take on the responsibility of building further from here. 

Your path has taken you from medical school to public health, economics and public policy. What sparked your interest in crossing boundaries? 

When I was in med school in the late 1990s, I realized that my passion lay in wanting to solve issues related to the health system itself. But medicine didn’t necessarily train me for that. I wanted to study management and social sciences to understand how to fix the problems that were systemic, and not necessarily related to one patient at a time.

Back then, in India, shifting away from clinical medicine into anything else, especially social sciences, was really tough to do. I had to make a conscious choice in crossing those boundaries. Once I’d done it, I realized that exploring new disciplinary lenses to understand problems I care about was exciting, and that my background gave me a unique understanding of the challenges I was trying to work on. So that has influenced and guided my research career over these last few decades. 

Can you share an example of interdisciplinary collaboration in your own research?

One example goes back to 2009-10, when my colleagues and I were trying to understand how to measure the quality of health care in low- and middle-income countries. We needed a way to study what happened during patient visits without changing the behavior of the patient or the provider.

We turned to the idea of standardized patients, which had been used in the U.S. to train doctors in medical schools using actors. We wanted to modify it and train actors from the community to present themselves as real patients, then report on their experience. But none of us had ever trained an actor, written a script or thought deeply about the anthropological aspects of how people dress and interact in these settings, or how the specific words they use also conveyed so much about their background, and their lived experience. 

What started as a discussion between economists became a much broader project that brought together world-leading anthropologists, experts from the National School of Drama and others with experience in actor training and script development. 

The project ultimately led to some of the seminal work on measuring quality in primary care settings, and the standardized patient method is now used around the world. It came out of a truly interdisciplinary collaboration.

At Duke you’ve been described as a natural connector. How did that approach shape the development of Duke’s We the People initiative?

Deborah Rutter, our vice provost for the arts, had just come to Duke, and as I was chatting with her, I realized she has this incredible ability to think of creative ideas for how the arts might factor into a wide range of efforts that span our academic enterprise. 

When the opportunity came up to partner with the National Archives Foundation on developing a unique course and a set of offerings around the 250^th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Deborah and I chatted about what else we could do. It quickly morphed into an idea that could be university- and community-wide, ranging from partnerships with the Durham Public Schools and the Nasher Museum of Art to Law School, Arts & Sciences and Public Policy faculty working on topics related to democracy and how we could help our students learn from the original documents.

I might not have the idea, but if I can see a thread that connects people, that makes the magic happen.

Image

• See rare historical copies of the Declaration of Independence at the Durham County Main Library through September 20 and the Nasher Museum of Art starting September 24. Learn more and see all We the People events.

What do you see as the greatest opportunities for interdisciplinarity at Duke over the next few years?

I see two sets of opportunities. 

One is that the big problems that we face today are not defined in one single discipline. The global problems — climate change or growing water shortages, for example — will require significant efforts from academics, policymakers and advocates to work together to understand the nature of the problem and think outside the box for solutions. That’s where I think we have a unique opportunity to do something differently because of our interdisciplinary strengths. 

So as AI, for instance, becomes a part of all of our lives, AI governance will require not just the technologists who are behind AI, but also the social scientists who understand how society responds to AI and the humanists who think about the human experience. I think we have a great opportunity and are well placed to do better than many of our peers because we’ve had this long tradition of engineers working with Arts & Sciences faculty and Law School faculty and humanists, and so on. 

Second, I think there is a growing understanding that resources today are not tied to disciplinary issues. We need to think differently about how we pursue those resources, whether for faculty research, teaching efforts or philanthropy. We have a great opportunity to support interdisciplinarity and work with innovative institutions all over the planet. 

Many students are eager to work on complex real-world challenges but are not always sure where to begin. What advice would you give them? 

Just start with the first opportunity that presents itself! That might mean writing a class paper about a challenge you care about, or looking up faculty who are working on topics you’re interested in. If you see any overlap in your interests, just go talk to the faculty members.

Also, Bass Connections always has amazing projects. Most will be focused on some of the biggest problems and challenges that we face today. So that’s a great opportunity for our students to get involved and learn how the research is done, how we take these findings and do something with it.

Quick Takes

Book you’ve read recently? 
“March,” by Geraldine Brooks

Last movie or TV series you watched?  
“Cape Fear” with Amy Adams

Favorite band or musician?  
Mark Knopfler, no doubt about that!

Best city in the world?  
Barcelona 

North Carolina mountains or beach?  
Beach

Favorite spot on Duke’s campus?  
The Quad

A class at Duke you’d love to take as a student? 
The America at 250 class taught by Joseph Blocher and Thavolia Glymph

One word that describes Duke’s interdisciplinary culture? 
Glue

A skill you’re currently trying to master?  
Working with AI 

A Durham restaurant you go to most often?  
Saltbox Seafood Joint

Favorite way to spend a weekend?  
Cooking, reading, listening to music 

Sweet or savory? 
Savory 

Coffee, tea or something else? 
Coffee

Main image: Photos of Manoj Mohanan courtesy of Sanford School of Public Policy