Launched in September 2018, Duke Kunshan University Humanities Research Center (HRC) promotes research and creative expression in the arts and humanities, and encourages interdisciplinary efforts. Working in close partnership with the Franklin Humanities Institute, the HRC functions as a key research bridge between faculty and students at Duke and DKU. In addition, the HRC facilitates co-curricular research training, treating the entire DKU campus as a laboratory for humanities research.

The HRC lies at the core of DKU’s mission to reinvent liberal arts and science education in a 21st century global context. We bring students, researchers and faculty together to investigate the fundamental questions of human being, and to bring the power of the humanities to bear on the pressing questions of the present age. In particular, humanities research contributes to DKU’s seven animating principles.

• Rooted Globalism
  The HRC seeks to interpret the contemporary global context in terms of its relation to the world’s cultures and traditions.
• Collaborative Problem-Solving
  Through its research into cultural, ethnic, and gender diversity the HRC strengthens collaboration across and within diverse groups of people.
• Research and Practice
  The HRC trains student researchers so as to enhance their learning experience and develop their capacity to produce capstone signature works.
• Lucid Communication
  The ability to read, write, and speak with critical rigor lies at the heart of humanistic endeavors.
• Independence and Creativity
  The HRC fosters research and creative practice in the arts on the DKU campus with the goal of developing the human capacity for creativity and imagination.
• Wise Leadership
  Through research into the world’s ethical traditions and the practice of contemporary philosophical inquiry the HRC place humane wisdom and ethical responsibility at the heart of the liberal arts and science university.
• A Purposeful Life
  Research into literature, history, philosophy and religion all provide insight into the fundamental humanistic questions of what a purposeful life consists of, and how it should be pursued.