On Wednesday, April 19, a Faculty Bookwatch event was held for the William Preston Few Professor of English and Duke University President Richard H. Brodhead, to celebrate his forthcoming book from Duke University Press: "Speaking of Duke: Leading the 21st-Century University." The John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute and the Duke Libraries have co-sponsored the annual Faculty Bookwatch program since 2004 to promote interdisciplinary conversations on major recent books by Duke humanities faculty. 

External guest respondents were University of Virginia Buckner W. Clay Dean of Arts & Sciences (and former Franklin Humanities Institute director) Ian Baucom, and Harvard University Professor of Business Administration and History and Chairman of the Harvard China Fund William Kirby. Duke respondents were Richard Powell (John Spencer Bassett Professor of Art and Art History), and Sarah Beckwith (Katherine Everett Gilbert Professor and Chair of English). With support from the Nasher Museum of Art, the event took place in the Nasher Auditorium, with a book signing and reception that followed in the Atrium.