Duke - Spring 2015 https://alumni.duke.edu/magazine/issue/spring-2015 en Rankings: A Cultural Fixation? https://alumni.duke.edu/magazine/articles/rankings-cultural-fixation <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden view-mode-rss"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p><iframe src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/199565406&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" width="100%" height="166"></iframe></p><p>Americans tend to be fixated on rankings, and that’s certainly true when it comes to colleges. Is this equally the case in other cultures? Sachin Patel spoke with two fellow Duke students: Kay Hasegawa from Japan and Kahaan Vasa from India. Produced for The Short Audio Documentary course taught by John Biewen at the Center for Documentary Studies.</p> </div></div></div> <h3 class="field-label"> Published </h3> <span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2015-04-07T00:00:00-04:00">Tuesday, April 7, 2015</span><section class="field field-name-field-main-image field-type-image field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Main image:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><figure class="clearfix field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-none" src="https://alumni.duke.edu/sites/default/files/dm-main-images/Rankings_main.jpeg" width="1900" height="900" alt="" /></figure></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-author field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Writer:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/magazine/author/sachin-patel" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Sachin Patel</a></li></ul></section><section class="field field-name-field-issue field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Issue:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/magazine/issue/spring-2015" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Spring 2015</a></li></ul></section><section class="field field-name-field-photo-credit field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Photo Credit:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/magazine/photographers/lacey-chylack" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Lacey Chylack</a></li></ul></section> <h3 class="field-label"> Featured article </h3> No <h3 class="field-label"> Background color </h3> blue Tue, 07 Apr 2015 08:00:00 +0000 Joseph Sorensen, JOSEPH E. 18498586 at https://alumni.duke.edu Walltown Children's Theatre https://alumni.duke.edu/magazine/articles/walltown-childrens-theatre <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden view-mode-rss"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p><iframe src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/195188522&color=0066cc&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" width="100%" height="166"></iframe></p><p> </p><p>The Walltown neighborhood in Durham is a predominantly black neighborhood just off the shoulder of Duke’s East Campus. In a low-income area, Walltown Children’s Theatre provides opportunities for youth to get off the street and immerse themselves in performing arts. Duke junior and Durham native Susannah Roberson reported on how the studio, now celebrating its 15th birthday, has uplifted the Walltown community. Produced for The Short Audio Documentary course taught by John Biewen at the Center for Documentary Studies.</p><p>Read <a href="http://dukemagazine.duke.edu/article/a-better-neighbor" target="_self">"A Better Neighbor"</a> to learn more about Duke's long and complicated relationship with Walltown.</p> </div></div></div> <h3 class="field-label"> Published </h3> <span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2015-03-10T00:00:00-04:00">Tuesday, March 10, 2015</span><section class="field field-name-field-main-image field-type-image field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Main image:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><figure class="clearfix field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-none" src="https://alumni.duke.edu/sites/default/files/default_images/dukmag-horizontal-placeholder.jpg" width="238" height="140" alt="" /></figure></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-author field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Writer:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/magazine/author/susannah-roberson" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Susannah Roberson</a></li></ul></section><section class="field field-name-field-issue field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Issue:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/magazine/issue/spring-2015" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Spring 2015</a></li></ul></section> <h3 class="field-label"> Featured article </h3> No <h3 class="field-label"> Background color </h3> blue Tue, 10 Mar 2015 08:00:00 +0000 Joseph Sorensen, JOSEPH E. 18498589 at https://alumni.duke.edu Voices of Walltowners https://alumni.duke.edu/magazine/articles/voices-walltowners <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden view-mode-rss"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p><iframe src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/195190045&color=0066cc&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" width="100%" height="166"></iframe>Miranda Chien-Hale is a Californian who has been living in the Walltown neighborhood of Durham, North Carolina for two years. She has barely spoken to her neighbors ... until now. Produced for The Short Audio Documentary course taught by John Biewen at the Center for Documentary Studies.</p><p>Read <a href="http://dukemagazine.duke.edu/article/a-better-neighbor" target="_self">"A Better Neighbor" </a>to learn more about Duke's long and complicated relationship with Walltown.</p> </div></div></div> <h3 class="field-label"> Published </h3> <span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2015-03-10T00:00:00-04:00">Tuesday, March 10, 2015</span><section class="field field-name-field-main-image field-type-image field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Main image:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><figure class="clearfix field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-none" src="https://alumni.duke.edu/sites/default/files/default_images/dukmag-horizontal-placeholder.jpg" width="238" height="140" alt="" /></figure></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-author field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Writer:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/magazine/author/miranda-chien-hale" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Miranda Chien-Hale</a></li></ul></section><section class="field field-name-field-issue field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Issue:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/magazine/issue/spring-2015" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Spring 2015</a></li></ul></section> <h3 class="field-label"> Featured article </h3> No <h3 class="field-label"> Background color </h3> blue Tue, 10 Mar 2015 08:00:00 +0000 Joseph Sorensen, JOSEPH E. 18498588 at https://alumni.duke.edu Roommates https://alumni.duke.edu/magazine/articles/roommates <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden view-mode-rss"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p><iframe src="//e.issuu.com/embed.html#0/11796654" frameborder="0" width="525" height="670"></iframe></p> </div></div></div> <h3 class="field-label"> Published </h3> <span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2015-03-10T00:00:00-04:00">Tuesday, March 10, 2015</span><section class="field field-name-field-main-image field-type-image field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Main image:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><figure class="clearfix field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-none" src="https://alumni.duke.edu/sites/default/files/dm-main-images/Roommates-main.png" width="620" height="265" alt="" /></figure></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-author field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Writer:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/magazine/author/maddie-taylor" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Maddie Taylor</a></li></ul></section><section class="field field-name-field-issue field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Issue:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/magazine/issue/spring-2015" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Spring 2015</a></li></ul></section><section class="field field-name-field-photo-credit field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Photo Credit:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/magazine/photographers/megan-morr" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Megan Morr</a></li></ul></section> <h3 class="field-label"> Featured article </h3> No <h3 class="field-label"> Background color </h3> blue Tue, 10 Mar 2015 08:00:00 +0000 Joseph Sorensen, JOSEPH E. 18498587 at https://alumni.duke.edu Planet Duke: Cooking Up a Change in India https://alumni.duke.edu/magazine/articles/planet-duke-cooking-change-india <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden view-mode-rss"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p><span class="dc">H</span>igh in the foothills of the Himalayas, after an hourslong trek up the hillside, Lisa Philippone and her fellow researchers finally reached the village. “It was just so crazy because you’re hiking, it’s so steep, it’s pouring rain all over us, and we get to the top and this little old lady is there, and she’s cooking on her stove,” remembers Philippone, a master’s student in the Duke Global Health Institute. She spent five months in Uttarakhand, India, last summer bringing new cookstoves to households.</p><p>Around 40 percent of households globally depend on traditional cookstoves to heat their homes and cook their meals. Smoke from traditional wood, coal, and dung-burning cookstoves can affect the health of the entire household negatively. Cooks, typically women and children, breathe in the harmful fumes, acquiring respiratory illness that can lead to death. Each year, more than 4 million people throughout the world die because of household air pollution.</p><p>Since 2011, the Duke Household Energy and Health Initiative has been surveying and introducing improved cookstoves to rural villages in India. The project is an attempt to discourage chopping trees for firewood and to reduce black carbon emissions harmful to both the environment and human health.</p><p>In 2011, Subhrendu Pattanayak, a professor in the Nicholas School of the Environment and the Sanford School of Public Policy, created an interdepartmental team, pooling researchers from the Duke Medical Center, the Duke Global Health Institute, and the Nicholas School. “Problems like this, I don’t think, can actually be solved unless groups are willing to work together across disciplines and across boundaries,” says Jessica Lewis, the project coordinator and a Nicholas School Ph.D. student.</p><p>In 2012, the team surveyed 1,000 households in Uttarakhand and came up with two options: an electric stove and a biomass-burning stove. Then, in 2013, they offered around 775 households the improved cookstoves, along with a government-subsidized rebate if they actually used the new stove. They also led an educational campaign about the health impacts of different types of cookstoves.</p><p>The first part of the pilot project was successful: About half the families in Uttarakhand adopted a new stove. The typical adoption rate of environmental health technologies, such as bed nets, toilets, and other cookstoves, is usually between 5 and 8 percent.</p><p>Now that families in Uttarakhand are using the improved cookstoves, Duke will do more research on how these new stoves will affect the reduction of household air pollution. Lewis returned to India in January to continue her research and involvement with the initiative. “Looking at a blank drawing board and thinking [about] how we can design something that has the greatest potential for change is really why I’m here.”</p><p>Philippone remembers the little old lady she encountered and how the new stove changed her life. “She was so thankful to see us, and she cooked tea on the stove and talked about it,” she says. “Every single household we went to offered to make us tea on the stove.”</p><p><strong>By the Numbers<br /></strong></p><p><strong>67</strong> <strong>% </strong>of households in India use traditional biomass fuels.</p><p>More than<strong> 4 million</strong> premature deaths per year are attributed to household air pollution.</p><p>Duke collaborates with <strong>10 organizations</strong> in India.</p><p>The initiative has seen a<strong> 90% decrease</strong> in firewood use in households that have the improved cookstove.</p><p><em>Sources</em>: W.H.O., <a href="http://www.dukeenergyhealth.org/" target="_blank">dukeenergyhealth.org</a></p> </div></div></div> <h3 class="field-label"> Published </h3> <span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2015-03-03T00:00:00-05:00">Tuesday, March 3, 2015</span><section class="field field-name-field-main-image field-type-image field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Main image:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><figure class="clearfix field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-none" src="https://alumni.duke.edu/sites/default/files/dm-main-images/Cookstoves-main.png" width="620" height="265" alt="" /></figure></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-author field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Writer:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/magazine/author/madeline-taylor" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Madeline Taylor</a></li></ul></section><section class="field field-name-field-issue field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Issue:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/magazine/issue/spring-2015" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Spring 2015</a></li></ul></section><section class="field field-name-field-portrait field-type-image field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Portrait:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><figure class="clearfix field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-none" src="https://alumni.duke.edu/sites/default/files/dm-portraits/Cookstove-portrait_0.png" width="250" height="300" /></figure></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-photo-credit field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Photo Credit:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/magazine/photographers/duke-household-energy-and-health-initiative" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Duke Household Energy and Health Initiative</a></li></ul></section> <h3 class="field-label"> Featured article </h3> No <h3 class="field-label"> Background color </h3> blue Tue, 03 Mar 2015 10:00:00 +0000 Joseph Sorensen, JOSEPH E. 18498593 at https://alumni.duke.edu The Legacy of Duke's First Janitor https://alumni.duke.edu/magazine/articles/legacy-dukes-first-janitor <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden view-mode-rss"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p><strong></strong>Walltown natives keep their creation story handy like a lucky old coin, proof of their hard-won fortune and untarnished pride. “Old man Wall’s house,” they say knowingly, gesturing toward Onslow Street, formerly Third Street, and before that Wall Street, to the spot where the first house in these parts was built more than a century ago.</p><p>A census entry in spindly cursive, a black-and-white death certificate, and a hand-drawn fire-insurance map are surviving clues to the life of George W. Wall. The exact date is not known, but it seems Wall was born into slavery around 1854 in the gently rolling foothills of Randolph County, North Carolina. He was the son of Irena and the slave of Solomon Wall, a farmer. A few years before, educator and Methodist minister Braxton Craven became head of the soon-to-be Trinity College in Randolph. Wall was an emancipated teenager when Craven hired him as a servant, and he soon began working for the college as a janitor.</p><p>Wall may have been the sole employee, apart from faculty members, to follow Trinity College to Durham in 1892. What compelled him to journey seventy miles away (at that time a long distance) from his birthplace and all he knew? Perhaps it was his devotion to the institution, or a need for stable income. Maybe he was hungry for adventure or uncharted land—Durham could offer both, as it was quickly sprouting into the vibrant tobacco capital of the South and the nation. Whatever his reasons, as the college’s textbooks and bronze bell were shipped over in boxcars, Wall and his family moved as well.</p><p>During his early years in Durham, Wall’s name appears here and there in local directories. At first he may have stayed on the college campus, a former fairgrounds donated by industrialist and philanthropist Julian S. Carr. A few years later, Wall is listed as a “porter” residing in Trinity Park, the area just east of campus where faculty members and administrators lived. A blue-collar minority in a sea of lettered whites, Wall may have longed for a kindred circle of other working black men; for other women to befriend his young wife, Hattie; and for other children to play with his own.</p><p>In 1902, Wall turned north. Just beyond the college grounds, a stretch of woods had been platted into residential blocks, numbered in one direction, lettered in the other, and posted for sale. Slightly sunken, creased by gullies, and vulnerable to flooding, the terrain was not prime for building. Yet Wall was drawn to this untouched frontier, and there he bought a plot for $50. Soon after, he built a small wood-frame cottage: one story tall, one room wide, and a few rooms deep, with a brick chimney and a little shed-roofed stoop in front. Soon other black families settled nearby, forming a close working-class community. In the 1920s, around the time Trinity was renamed Duke University, the industrious little hamlet two blocks north was coined Walltown.</p><p>Despite his lowly status, Wall became good friends with college president John F. Crowell, who wrote in a letter of the janitor’s “fidelity and simple devotion to duties that were not always the pleasantest and easiest.” One of Wall’s sons appears to be named Braxton, likely in honor of the man who employed him for decades. Another son, George-Frank, also worked at Duke as a custodian and bequeathed the university a generous gift of $100 upon his death.</p><p>After fifty years of continuous service to Trinity and Duke, Wall died in the winter of 1930. He left behind a second wife, Lillie Wall, and several generations of children and grandchildren (several of his great-grandchildren still reside in Walltown today).</p><p> <img alt="" class="media-image" height="380" width="300" typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://magazine-dev.oit.duke.edu/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/Janitor-house_0.png?itok=9YtxMB3x" /> One can still leave East Campus, walk north for three blocks, and spot Wall’s little wood-frame cottage on Onslow Street. Cobwebs lace the porch, broken bottles litter the yard, the rooms are cloaked in dust. The house is empty, weathered, and almost hidden, but it is still there.</p><p> </p><p> </p> </div></div></div> <h3 class="field-label"> Published </h3> <span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2015-03-03T00:00:00-05:00">Tuesday, March 3, 2015</span><section class="field field-name-field-main-image field-type-image field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Main image:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><figure class="clearfix field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-none" src="https://alumni.duke.edu/sites/default/files/dm-main-images/Map-color.png" width="620" height="265" alt="" /></figure></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-author field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Writer:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/magazine/author/elizabeth-van-brocklin" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Elizabeth Van Brocklin</a></li></ul></section><section class="field field-name-field-issue field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Issue:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/magazine/issue/spring-2015" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Spring 2015</a></li></ul></section><section class="field field-name-field-portrait field-type-image field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Portrait:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><figure class="clearfix field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-none" src="https://alumni.duke.edu/sites/default/files/dm-portraits/Janitor-portrait_0.png" width="250" height="300" /></figure></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-photo-credit field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Photo Credit:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/magazine/photographers/north-carolina-maps" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">North Carolina Maps</a></li></ul></section> <h3 class="field-label"> Featured article </h3> No <h3 class="field-label"> Background color </h3> blue<section class="field field-name-field-sub-header field-type-text-long field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Sub-header:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">George Wall founded Walltown, a neighborhood near Duke&#039;s East Campus</div></div></section> Tue, 03 Mar 2015 10:00:00 +0000 Joseph Sorensen, JOSEPH E. 18498592 at https://alumni.duke.edu Forever Duke Q&A: Stuart Jones https://alumni.duke.edu/magazine/articles/forever-duke-qa-stuart-jones <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden view-mode-rss"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p><em>Stuart Jones is the former ambassador of Jordan and was the deputy chief of mission in Baghdad from 2010 to 2011. As a career diplomat, he has been stationed all over the world— including in Egypt, Turkey, Colombia, and El Salvador. </em><em><em>President Barack Obama nominated  Jones as ambassador to Iraq in May 2014.</em> Jones and his wife, Barbara, are the parents of two Duke students: Thad, a senior, and Dorothy, a sophomore.<strong><br /></strong></em></p><p><strong>Who inspired you to enter the Foreign Service, and what keeps you going in the job?</strong></p><p>My grandfather was a Foreign Service officer. My siblings and I went to visit him in Libya in 1963. We were just little kids, but it really did have a profound impact on us. For me, it’s the variety [that keeps me going]—the variety of the jobs, the challenges, and the regions—and the chance to do something new and different every three years.</p><p><strong>What is most important to successful diplomacy?</strong></p><p>The most important thing about diplomatic work is to establish relationships of trust. You need to have an understanding of the region. You have to have an understanding of the culture. But fundamentally, you have to make a human connection with the people you are working with so you can have frank conversations that lead to solutions.</p><p><strong>How did you choose Duke?</strong></p><p>I was living in Maine, and I wanted to go someplace that would be really different from New England. I went to visit my grandfather down in Sarasota, Florida, for spring break, and I came back on the train. I got off in Raleigh, and I hitchhiked from Raleigh to Durham, and I took the tour. People were just back from spring break, and there was a wonderful vibe and atmosphere on the campus. I just fell in love with the place, so Duke became my first choice.</p><p><strong>How did Duke prepare you to be a career diplomat?</strong></p><p>I took a bunch of great history courses with Peter Wood and William Chafe and Larry Goodwyn, and they were really eye-opening courses. They were champions of social history. It stirred a lot of curiosity in me about how people lived, not just in America but elsewhere. In that era, you didn’t need to be an expert in a language or a region to join the Foreign Service. You could be a generalist. I have valued the education I got at Duke.</p><p>Also, at that time, the president of Duke was Terry Sanford. I thought the way he had lived his life as a leader was special and admirable and worth emulating. When I was a junior officer in El Salvador, and he was a senator from North Carolina, I was his control officer when he came down to visit [when the country was in the midst of civil war]. He was so gracious, and it reminded me of what a great inspiration he was—really a made man— and I think so responsible for what Duke has become.</p><p><strong>What is your advice for Duke students who are considering careers in the Foreign Service? </strong></p><p>Don’t be intimidated by the exam or the requirements for security clearances. I think when people start looking at what’s involved in joining the Foreign Service, they get turned off by the amount of bureaucracy that it takes to get in. Also, the Foreign Service really prizes languages. So if you’re planning on spending $60,000 on a master’s degree in Middle Eastern studies, it’s better to take the $60,000 and go to Jordan and learn Arabic.</p><p><strong>What are your hopes for your work in Iraq?</strong></p><p>We’ve got three major goals. One is to defeat the terrorist threat posed by Daesh [also known as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS]. Second, I think we want to help the new government to foster political consensus around the other issues facing Iraq—like how to best use their hydrocarbon resources and how to reconcile the various groups that comprise Iraq. Third, Iraq is facing tremendous economic challenges. We’d like to help the government navigate this difficult economic period.</p><p>—Edited by Christina Holder</p> </div></div></div> <h3 class="field-label"> Published </h3> <span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2015-03-03T00:00:00-05:00">Tuesday, March 3, 2015</span><section class="field field-name-field-main-image field-type-image field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Main image:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><figure class="clearfix field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-none" src="https://alumni.duke.edu/sites/default/files/dm-main-images/Stu-Jones-main.png" width="620" height="265" alt="" /></figure></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-author field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Writer:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/magazine/writers/christina-holder" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Christina Holder</a></li></ul></section><section class="field field-name-field-issue field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Issue:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/magazine/issue/spring-2015" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Spring 2015</a></li></ul></section><section class="field field-name-field-portrait field-type-image field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Portrait:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><figure class="clearfix field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-none" src="https://alumni.duke.edu/sites/default/files/dm-portraits/Stuart-jones-portrait_0.png" width="250" height="300" /></figure></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-photo-credit field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Photo Credit:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/magazine/photographers/military-times-us-department-state" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Military Times, US Department of State</a></li></ul></section> <h3 class="field-label"> Featured article </h3> No <h3 class="field-label"> Background color </h3> blue<section class="field field-name-field-sub-header field-type-text-long field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Sub-header:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Sterly Wilder ’83, associate vice president for alumni affairs, in conversation with Stuart Jones ’82.</div></div></section> Tue, 03 Mar 2015 10:00:00 +0000 Joseph Sorensen, JOSEPH E. 18498591 at https://alumni.duke.edu Alumni in the Spotlight https://alumni.duke.edu/magazine/articles/alumni-spotlight <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden view-mode-rss"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p><strong>Moviemaker Robert Yeoman '73<br /></strong></p><p>As a child growing up in the Chicago suburbs, Robert Yeoman was fascinated by movies.</p><p>“There was no Internet, no cable TV. So going to the movie theater was a big event,” said Yeoman, the acclaimed cinematographer who returned to campus as the keynote speaker for Duke Entertainment Media and Arts Network (DEMAN) Weekend last fall. “I loved westerns. I loved comedies. I got into Alfred Hitchcock...that always stayed with me.”</p><p>But making a career out of making movies was not in his original plan.</p><p>Yeoman arrived at Duke thinking he would pursue a premed track to become a doctor, but he ended up becoming a psychology major. Looking back, it was a fitting major, he said. “Studying psychology helped me to understand people and personalities and how things interact...and that’s a very strong component, certainly, in making a film,” he said. Yeoman’s turning point toward the film industry came during his sophomore year when he saw the Raleigh debut of Stanley Kubrick’s <em>A Clockwork Orange</em>.</p><p>“I was just so amazed by this film,” Yeoman said. “I remember driving back to Duke thinking, ‘I really want to get involved in this.’ It kind of was a moment that changed my life.”</p><p>Yeoman went on to earn an M.F.A. from the University of Southern California, where he pursued his love of cinematography. Throughout his career, he has worked on more than fifty films—including <em>Bridesmaids</em>, <em>Get Him to the Greek</em>, and all of director Wes Anderson’s live-action films.</p><p>—Christina Holder</p><p><strong>Journalist Jeff Stern '07<span class="dc"><br /></span></strong></p><p><img alt="" class="media-image" height="230" style="float: right;" width="275" typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://magazine-dev.oit.duke.edu/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/Stern.png?itok=tRP5UiiT" />Stern, who traveled to Guinea to report on the Ebola outbreak for <em>Vanity Fair</em>, returned to campus last fall to talk to students in the Sanford School of Public Policy about his career journey as a journalist and the lessons he learned while tracking the worst Ebola outbreak in history.</p><p>In an interview with Ken Rogerson, director of undergraduate studies at Sanford, Stern—a former student contributor to <em>Duke Magazine</em>—talked about how he retraced the outbreak of the Ebola virus to the village of Meliandou, where it is believed the virus was passed from a fruit bat to a toddler.</p><p>“The underreported part of the story is ecological—the fact that there’s been so much trauma to the land, mining, and deforestation, that you have species coming into contact with people who have never really had to spend much time with them,” Stern told students. “People have to get used to having new neighbors basically, and those neighbors carry pathogens that we’re not used to.”</p><p>Read Stern’s <em>Vanity Fair</em> article on the Ebola outbreak, <a href="http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2014/10/ebola-virus-epidemic-containment" target="_blank">“Hell in the Hot Zone."</a></p><p><strong>Producer Eric Oberstein ’07</strong></p><p><img alt="" class="media-image" height="220" style="float: right;" width="300" typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://magazine-dev.oit.duke.edu/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/Oberstein.png?itok=E78kSScJ" />Oberstein recently won a Grammy award for producing Arturo O’Farrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra’s “The Offense of the Drum,” voted Best Latin Jazz Album. </p><p>Oberstein’s mother is Cuban, so he grew up listening to Latin jazz, which he describes as jazz with “a different pulse.” In 2005, as a junior studying with Duke in New York, he learned about Arturo and his music. Son of the late legendary Cuban composer Chico O’Farrill, Arturo directed a Latin jazz big-band ensemble in honor of his father for years.</p><p>After graduating from Duke, Oberstein began producing albums with Arturo’s band, including a live recording of the Chico O’Farrill Afro Cuban Jazz Orchestra’s last performance at Birdland, New York’s famous jazz club. Last November, “Final Night at Birdland” won a Latin Grammy in the category of Best Instrumental Jazz.</p><p>“Chico O’Farrill was one of the pioneers of Afro-Cuban big-band jazz, and it meant a great deal to see Arturo carry on that legacy and that mission,” says Oberstein.</p><p>Besides producing albums, Oberstein coordinates a colorful variety of performances as associate director of Duke Performances.</p><p><strong>Duke Lacrosse Alumni<span class="dc"><br class="dc" /></span></strong></p><p><img alt="" class="media-image" height="220" style="float: right;" width="300" typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://magazine-dev.oit.duke.edu/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/Cunningham.png?itok=8cNGG6Xe" />Chris Sussingham '83 and seventeen other Duke alumni lacrosse players are behind a historic visit by the “Original Blue Devil” to campus earlier this year.</p><p>Major Jean-François Lakomy, representing the French Army’s 27th Brigade— nicknamed “Diables Bleus” or “Blue Devils” during World War I and later adopted as Duke University’s mascot—spoke to the men’s and women’s lacrosse teams, attended the men’s lacrosse national championship ring ceremony, and met with President Richard Brodhead at the dedication of the new Kennedy Tower.</p><p>In 2013, John Danowski, head coach of the men’s lacrosse team, presented each graduating senior with an original beret from the famous French brigade. The brigade, known for its unique training to survive the rigors of the French Alps, wore a blue cape and beret as its signature uniform.</p><p>Lakomy continued the tradition, delivering new berets for the lacrosse team’s senior class.</p><p><em><br /></em></p> </div></div></div> <h3 class="field-label"> Published </h3> <span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2015-03-03T00:00:00-05:00">Tuesday, March 3, 2015</span><section class="field field-name-field-main-image field-type-image field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Main image:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><figure class="clearfix field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-none" src="https://alumni.duke.edu/sites/default/files/dm-main-images/Oberstein-main.png" width="620" height="265" alt="" /></figure></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-issue field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Issue:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/magazine/issue/spring-2015" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Spring 2015</a></li></ul></section><section class="field field-name-field-portrait field-type-image field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Portrait:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><figure class="clearfix field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-none" src="https://alumni.duke.edu/sites/default/files/dm-portraits/Yeoman-portrait_0.png" width="250" height="300" /></figure></div></section> <h3 class="field-label"> Featured article </h3> No <h3 class="field-label"> Background color </h3> blue<section class="field field-name-field-sub-header field-type-text-long field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Sub-header:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">What are Duke alumni up to?</div></div></section> Tue, 03 Mar 2015 10:00:00 +0000 Joseph Sorensen, JOSEPH E. 18498590 at https://alumni.duke.edu Muslim Prayer Call Sparks Debate https://alumni.duke.edu/magazine/articles/muslim-prayer-call-sparks-debate <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden view-mode-rss"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>In less than a week, Duke made decisions that were criticized and praised and launched a national and campus discussion about religious pluralism and the chapel’s role. After an announcement that the traditional Muslim call to prayer would be broadcast weekly from the top of the chapel, the university reconsidered the decision and moved to an alternative approach.</p> <p>The incident began quietly enough, when in mid-January Duke announced that members of the Muslim Student Association would chant the <em>adhan</em> from the top of the chapel, amplified to be heard in the quad in front of the landmark building. Weekly <em>jummah</em>, or congregational prayers, have taken place in the basement of Duke Chapel for many years; several hundred of the university’s 15,000 undergraduate and graduate students identify as Muslim. Duke was one of the first research universities to appoint a Muslim student chaplain, in 2008, and has an active Center for Muslim Life on campus.</p> <p>Reaction from people and groups connected to the university and not was vitriolic and thoughtful, supportive and dismayed. In reconsidering the decision, administrators cited a concern that “what began as something that was meant to be unifying was turning into something that was the opposite,” as Michael Schoenfeld ’84, vice president for public affairs and government relations, put it. Schoenfeld also cited “serious and credible concerns about safety and security.”</p> <p>A compromise was crafted. On a sunny Friday afternoon, the Chapel Quad was packed with supporters and worshippers while the <em>adnan</em> was delivered— in English, then Arabic—over a small speaker on the chapel steps.</p> <p>Hundreds of alumni expressed their opinion on social media, including the university Facebook page. “My feeling is that religion should be personal. I don’t want Duke to ring a bell for a Muslim call to prayer, just like I don’t find it necessary for Duke to have a public call to Hindu worship, or gongs to publicly sound meditation time for Buddhists. The church bells that ring from Duke Chapel are not a call to worship. They ring the hour like a clock, or a concert from the clarion,” posted Tula Holmes ’73.</p> <p>From a different perspective, David Graham ’09, a former editor of <em>The Chronicle</em> and a staff writer at <em>The Atlantic</em>, wrote about the incident for the magazine’s website. “Now, one might argue that while Duke’s gesture was well-intentioned, the timing was wrong—why rile people up at a moment when nerves are already on edge about Islam? But I think it’s the other way around. There’s no time when it is as essential to stand on the side of a minority as when that group is under fire.”</p> <p>The university admitted it could have done things differently. “In the process that led to the initial announcement, we should have engaged more broadly with interested stakeholders within the university and beyond,” Schoenfeld told <em>The Chronicle</em>. Indeed, in a letter to the Duke Divinity School community, Dean Richard Hays acknowledged he was not consulted about the original decision and did not agree with it.</p> <p>In an open letter, Luke Powery, the chapel’s dean, said the controversy reaffirmed the chapel’s role as a place of hospitality toward the diverse religions and cultures on campus. “Thoughtful, faithful people have agreed and disagreed with the various decisions made this week,” he wrote. “In the coming weeks, the chapel will seek opportunities for constructive dialogue about these complex and important subjects as we all strive for deeper understanding and greater faithfulness to God.”</p> </div></div></div> <h3 class="field-label"> Published </h3> <span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2015-02-24T00:00:00-05:00">Tuesday, February 24, 2015</span><section class="field field-name-field-main-image field-type-image field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Main image:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><figure class="clearfix field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-none" src="https://alumni.duke.edu/sites/default/files/dm-main-images/Muslim-main.png" width="620" height="265" alt="" /></figure></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-author field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Writer:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/magazine/author/adrienne-johnson-martin" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Adrienne Johnson Martin</a></li></ul></section><section class="field field-name-field-issue field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Issue:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/magazine/issue/spring-2015" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Spring 2015</a></li></ul></section><section class="field field-name-field-portrait field-type-image field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Portrait:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><figure class="clearfix field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-none" src="https://alumni.duke.edu/sites/default/files/dm-portraits/Muslim-portrait_0.png" width="250" height="300" alt="" /></figure></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-photo-credit field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Photo Credit:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/magazine/photographers/megan-morr" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Megan Morr</a></li></ul></section> <h3 class="field-label"> Featured article </h3> No <h3 class="field-label"> Background color </h3> blue<section class="field field-name-field-sub-header field-type-text-long field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Sub-header:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Up for discussion: the role of the chapel and religion on campus</div></div></section> <h3 class="field-label"> Cover Story </h3> <h3 class="field-label"> Homepage </h3> Tue, 24 Feb 2015 10:00:00 +0000 Joseph Sorensen, JOSEPH E. 18499398 at https://alumni.duke.edu https://alumni.duke.edu/magazine/articles/muslim-prayer-call-sparks-debate#comments My Simian, My Self https://alumni.duke.edu/magazine/articles/my-simian-my-self <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden view-mode-rss"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>Horizontal rays of light pierced the canopy, giving the tops of leaves a ruddy shine. I was alone in the forest, and I wanted to return home before dark. But I also wanted to see where Mitchell, an enigmatic adolescent chimpanzee, made his nest for the night. I live in the middle of the Ugandan forest, at Ngogo Research Camp, which is within the territory of the Ngogo chimpanzee community. I’m here to study the transition to adulthood in male chimpanzees. Teenage males, who have spent their entire lives traveling alongside their mother, must forge independent relationships with group mates. How do they fare as they attempt to make friends, mate, and climb the dominance hierarchy? Also, what are the traits that define adulthood?</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <div class="caption caption-left"> <div class="caption-width-container" style="width: 360px;"> <div class="caption-inner"><img alt="Chi-Chi" class="media-image" src="http://magazine-dev.oit.duke.edu/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/Chimps-2.png?itok=bcXCN7F4" style="height:300px; width:360px" /> <p>Time-worn Chi-chi, Aaron's stuffed animal</p> </div> </div> </div> <p>Studying chimpanzees is a defining trait of my own adulthood. When I was five years old, I picked out a stuffed animal gorilla at a children’s clothing store. I named him Chi-chi (pronounced “chee-chee”) and promptly decided to study apes in the wild when I grew up. I spent years toting Chi-chi around, and he and sixty other stuffed animal primates slept on my bed (until I left for college, when my parents moved them to the attic). The summer after I hit puberty, I came face to face with an adolescent gorilla at the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston, the beginning of the inextricable connection between my coming of age and apes. The lanky, ten-year-old gorilla had tried to find freedom outside the zoo, whereas the zoo is where I found mine. I spent every free moment of high school volunteering at the zoo, sometimes skipping class to hose away feces, observe the gorillas, and cuddle cockatoos.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>My work with captive animals strengthened my desire to study apes in the wild. I applied to Duke because of the plethora of primate classes and opportunities for research at the Duke Lemur Center. It lived up to my expectations, as I became immersed in primate evolution, lemur cognition, and ape social behavior. After my junior year, my dream of studying apes in the wild came true. I spent a summer in Uganda’s Kibale National Park, observing play behavior in infants of the Kanyawara chimpanzee community. I had made it to Africa. My childhood dream was becoming ever more tangible, as the precipice of adulthood was becoming ever more imminent.</p> <div class="caption caption-center"> <div class="caption-width-container" style="width: 410px;"> <div class="caption-inner"><img alt="" class="media-image" src="http://magazine-dev.oit.duke.edu/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/Chimps-3.png?itok=53CpcK6E" style="height:300px; width:410px" /> <p>Sandel worked at the Lemur Center while at Duke. Photo by Ricki Oldenkamp</p> </div> </div> </div> <p>Now, here I am, trying to determine metrics of adulthood for wild chimpanzees. Mitchell, the elusive adolescent whom I followed until sunset, is approaching that phase, but he has work to do. He rarely spends time with other chimps (which is why I have so little data on him). The exception is Mulligan, a silver-haired adult male. They make an odd couple. Large males usually spend their time combing through the fur of other adults and engaging in the never-ending fight for high status. Mulligan does do some strutting around, but it seems that his affinity for Mitchell takes priority. As dusk began to fall, Mulligan appeared ahead on the trail. He soon climbed into a tree and began bending and cracking branches to make a nest. Mitchell followed suit, finding a small tree twenty feet away to make his bed for the night.</p> <p>Friendship, which is a term increasingly used to describe the social relationships of primates and other mammals, is exemplified by adult male chimpanzees. Among adults, males have favorite chimpanzees whom they groom and travel with. These preferences are noticeable as chimpanzees live in “fission-fusion” communities, in which subgroups, or cliques, form throughout the day. At any point, one chimpanzee may split off to find others or to be alone.</p> <p>The dynamic nature of chimpanzee life makes collecting data difficult. I follow young males for one hour at a time, recording their every social interaction, and fission and fuse along with them. After one hour, I hope that whoever I’m following has found another subject for me to observe. My goal is to get one thousand hours of observation spread evenly across eighteen young males. But chimps don’t spend equal time with one another, and I am often left with fewer hours on the loners.</p> <p>That is why, on a dry morning in January, I was excited to see the chimpanzee for whom I have the least data. Hawkins is a twenty-yearold momma’s boy who prefers that humans don’t follow him. That day, I was determined to stick to him.</p> <p>I started the morning pacing underneath a fig tree, trying to recognize faces amidst the leaves. Studying nearly 200 chimpanzees requires recognizing each individual, which is no easy task. To aid in memorization, researchers name each chimp. David Watts and John Mitani, who began research on the Ngogo chimpanzees twenty years ago, named many chimpanzees after jazz musicians—Miles, Monk, Ellington, etc. Others are named after opera singers, contemporary actors, peace activists, and a few after pioneers in primatology, such as Struhsaker, who is named after Tom Struhsaker, a scientist at Duke who began research in Kibale Forest in 1970 and established Ngogo Research Camp. Today, whoever is first to see a new infant or immigrant gets naming rights.</p> <p>Looking up into the fig tree, I could make out the silky hair andprotruding brow of Hicks, another young adult male. I also saw the sloping face and swollen eyes of Haden, a rotund not-quite adult. Then there were whoops, wheezes, and screams to the east: the “pant hoot” calls chimpanzees use to communicate across far distances. Immediately three of the chimps in the tree, including Hicks, slid down trunks like firefighters and headed toward the calls. I followed them, along with Ambrose Twineomujuni, one of the Ugandan chimp trackers who helps collect long-term data on the Ngogo community. Soon we caught up to a group of males, including Hawkins and Mitchell.</p> <p>When Hawkins took off at a trot, I followed. Ambrose stayed behind with the newly formed subgroup. My thighs burned as I tried to keep my eye on the black mass of his body ahead, but soon he was lost in the thick vegetation. I strained my ears for the sound of dead leaves crunching beneath his feet. Silence. I had lost the chimp.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <div class="caption caption-right"> <div class="caption-width-container" style="width: 300px;"> <div class="caption-inner"><img alt="" class="media-image" src="http://magazine-dev.oit.duke.edu/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/Chimps-1.png?itok=_HQOSu1r" style="height:380px; width:300px" /> <p>Collecting chimpanzee urine. Photo by Tom<br /> Struhsaker</p> </div> </div> </div> <p>It used to be boring watching chimpanzees. So boring, in fact, that it led to an existential crisis in July of 2013. I originally intended to study social relationships in infant chimpanzees, but I was still learning to recognize and follow adults, let alone the nameless, tan-faced, subadults. I didn’t have a clear project, so it felt like I was just wandering the forest, gazing at chimps. I would count the hours until I could return to camp, crouch under the bag of water heated tepid by the sun, put on clean clothes, eat dinner, and read in my tent.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>I escaped to books. Reading <em>Crime and Punishment</em>, I began to identify with Raskolnikov, the deranged, youngadult protagonist. I wandered through the verdure of the forest and felt nothing while Raskolnikov wandered the city streets of Russia feeling the same. Like him, I was without direction. Who was I if not a primatologist? What of my childhood dreams? Dostoevsky’s prose felt familiar: “[…] as though he actually imagined he could think the same thoughts, be interested in the same theories and pictures that had interested him…so short a time ago. He felt it almost amusing, and yet it wrung his heart.”</p> <p>I considered quitting. I brought up my angst about primatology with my adviser, John Mitani. “What about all your stuffed animal primates?” he barked. He was right. I hadn’t blown out two decades’ worth of birthday candles wishing to study apes in the wild for nothing. I decided to study friendship in young males as they become adults. Being twenty-six, I could transition to adulthood alongside them.</p> <p>Here I am, still in the jungle. My childhood dream has survived, as has Chi-chi, save for a violent encounter with my dog in the 2000s in which he lost his nose. In fact, I’ve brought him along with me to Uganda as an additional prophylaxis against existential crises. There are still occasional moments of boredom. After all, chimpanzees spend much of their time in trees feeding or resting, barely in view. While their lives are filled with melodrama— grooming, screaming, slapping, hugging—it’s not every day that something truly dramatic occurs, like a monkey hunt or patrol of the boundaries. But my apathy has been replaced with anxiety. Each successful hour of observation is a source of joy. Each time I lose the chimp is a source of sadness. Which brings me back to losing Hawkins one morning in January.</p> <p>If I hadn’t followed Hawkins, I would have had a very different day. The group Ambrose was following continued north and didn’t stop. They decided to be dramatic. They went to the northeast edge of their territory, and began quietly walking single- file in search of their neighbors. Chimpanzees are highly territorial and will make military-like incursions into the homeland of nearby chimpanzee communities. If they find and outnumber the neighbors, they will kill any adult males they can catch, and they will rip any infants they find out of the mother’s arms.</p> <p>On that day, they surprised a small group of chimpanzees and caught an adult male. Ambrose watched as the Ngogo males bit his arms, legs, and face, ripping his lower lip in two, and pounding at his chest. This lasted for thirty minutes, until they left him for dead. Three young adults, including Hicks, were part of the patrol, but they stayed to the side as five older males conducted the attack. Apparently Hicks was not adult enough.</p> <p>The next day we went in search of the corpse. Although an important part of chimpanzee behavior, lethal aggression is rare to observe. It is also rare to find the dead body of a wild chimpanzee. We wanted to assess its injuries, measure its body size, collect skin and hair samples, and move the chimpanzee into a location where we could let it decompose and later collect the bones.</p> <p>We found the body of the chimp at the edge of a brook, where he had died still holding a branch. I donned three pairs of exam gloves, a facemask, and a cheap pair of pajamas over my clothes as scrubs. (HIV came from a chimpanzee version of the virus, likely jumping to humans when people butchered chimpanzees for food, so disease risk is very high.) The Ugandan staff who usually maintain the forest trails made a “stretcher,” and after covering the body in plastic bags, they tied it up and carried it closer to camp.</p> <p>Lying in bed that night, I couldn’t get the image of the corpse out of my head. I ran my hand against my chest and stomach, the feel of my skin and hair not unlike that of the chimp. The similarities between chimpanzees and humans are striking, from the way they sit with their legs crossed, their heel resting on their knee, to the way they hum to themselves when eating certain foods. It is no surprise they are our closest living relatives.</p> <p>Dissecting a wild chimpanzee was too much of a reminder of this. And it was not part of my childhood dream. Maybe, like Hawkins, who avoided going on patrol, or Hicks, who was not allowed to take part in the fight, I’m not adult enough. After that gory endeavor, I was particularly grateful to sit among living chimpanzees, observe their friendlier side, and remain on the cusp of adulthood a little bit longer.&nbsp;</p> <p><em>Since June 2014, Sandel ’10 has been studying adolescent chimpanzee behavior in Uganda’s Kibale National Park. The trip is part of his Ph.D. in biological anthropology at the University of Michigan. He studied evolutionary anthropology at Duke.</em></p> </div></div></div> <h3 class="field-label"> Published </h3> <span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2015-02-24T00:00:00-05:00">Tuesday, February 24, 2015</span><section class="field field-name-field-main-image field-type-image field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Main image:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><figure class="clearfix field-item even"><img typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-none" src="https://alumni.duke.edu/sites/default/files/dm-main-images/Aaron-main.png" width="1900" height="900" alt="Photo by Rachna Reddy" /></figure></div></section><section class="field field-name-field-author field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Writer:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/magazine/author/aaron-sandel" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Aaron Sandel</a></li></ul></section><section class="field field-name-field-issue field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Issue:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/magazine/issue/spring-2015" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Spring 2015</a></li></ul></section><section class="field field-name-field-photo-credit field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Photo Credit:&nbsp;</h2><ul class="field-items"><li class="field-item even"><a href="/magazine/photographers/courtesy-aaron-sandel" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Courtesy Aaron Sandel</a></li></ul></section> <h3 class="field-label"> Featured article </h3> Yes <h3 class="field-label"> Background color </h3> blue<section class="field field-name-field-sub-header field-type-text-long field-label-above view-mode-rss"><h2 class="field-label">Sub-header:&nbsp;</h2><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">As he researches adolescent chimps, an alumnus ponders his own transition to adulthood.</div></div></section> <h3 class="field-label"> Cover Story </h3> <h3 class="field-label"> Homepage </h3> Tue, 24 Feb 2015 10:00:00 +0000 Joseph Sorensen, JOSEPH E. 18499400 at https://alumni.duke.edu https://alumni.duke.edu/magazine/articles/my-simian-my-self#comments