Seeking Applications for Faculty to Co-Instruct New Joint Course with Durham Tech Community College

Over the last five years, Duke and Durham Tech have developed a growing set of joint educational endeavors, including curricular internships for Duke Ph.D. students at Durham Tech and the infusion of Durham Tech’s gateway courses for the health sciences with health humanities. 

We are now planning to partner with Durham Tech to launch two new sequenced courses on Durham and are seeking applications from faculty interested in co-instructing this work alongside a faculty member from Durham Tech.

Eligibility

Any Duke regular rank faculty member may apply.

About the Courses

During the first course, Duke and Durham Tech students will learn about: 1) the historical, sociological, economic and cultural factors that have shaped Durham; 2) mixed social science methods; and 3) the ethics and best practices associated with community-based and community-engaged research.

We anticipate that roughly half of the students who take the first course will continue the following semester, taking a course that will have small teams undertake a research project in partnership with a local community organization.

For the first iteration, we envision running the course in Spring 2025 and Fall 2025. In subsequent years, we expect to run the program on a Fall-Spring sequence. 

The Duke faculty co-instructor for this pilot program will work closely with a counterpart at Durham Tech to design the two courses and evaluate opportunities to refine the program model. We are modeling this endeavor after the Liberal Arts Action Lab, a successful collaboration between Trinity College and Capital Community College in Hartford, Connecticut.

The course will be supported by the Duke Center for Community Engagement, once that center is formally launched later in 2024. For the pilot, we anticipate that the first semester course will enroll 24 students, half each from Duke and Durham Tech. We hope that 12-15 students will continue for the second semester.

Key Duties

Key duties of the Duke co-instructor (in partnership with the Durham Tech co-instructor) include:

• Developing course syllabus and related materials for the first-semester course
• Recruiting appropriate visitors to the course from the Durham community
• Submitting a request to the Duke Courses Committee to receive the appropriate course codes and working with relevant DUS to set up cross-listings
• Co-teaching the “context” course and the follow-on “collaborative project” course
• Setting up a framework for recruiting and selecting community projects for the second course
• Setting up scaffolding to support student research teams in that follow-on course
• Serving as a liaison during the second semester between the Duke/Durham Tech team and community partners
• Mentoring student teams
• Assessing the impact of the course on student development and community partners
• Identifying opportunities to refine the course model

Support

The Duke co-instructor’s department or school will receive funding for one course-release, during the first year of the pilot. In addition, the Duke faculty member will receive a $10,000 stipend to support planning time during the 2024 calendar year and $5,000 in discretionary research funds.

The course will also receive the support of one TA in each semester, and a small programmatic budget will be available to support a dinner for course participants, honoraria for visitors to the course, ground transportation costs, and other minor research expenses that may be required by the student teams.

The Center for Community Engagement will also help manage logistical issues such as classroom space and ground transportation.

Application

To apply, please submit by email to laura.howes@duke.edu the following information by 11:59 p.m. on March 1, 2024:

• CV
• A statement of interest, no more than three pages in length, that articulates:
  • Why you are interested in teaching this course
  • Any relevant experiences that you have had, including experience with similar courses and experiences teaching in a diverse classroom setting that includes students with varied backgrounds and levels of preparation
  • A brief summary of your teaching philosophy/approach
  • Three challenges you would anticipate having to navigate in designing and implementing these two courses
• A letter of support from your department chair or dean, as appropriate, indicating their support for allowing you to teach this course in Spring 2025 and Fall 2025, and then subsequently for two academic years, with the understanding that one course release would be funded for each one-year cycle
• Evidence that speaks to your teaching record (e.g., summary of course evaluations, teaching honors, sample syllabi demonstrating innovative pedagogical approaches). These materials are optional and can be included as an appendix/attachment

Finalists for this role will meet with the Durham Tech co-instructor and a Durham Tech dean as part of the selection process.

Contact

If you have questions, or would like to discuss this opportunity, please contact Abdullah Antepli (abdullah.antepli@duke.edu) or Laura Howes (laura.howes@duke.edu).