Inaugural Experiential Learning Trip Brings Faculty and Staff Into Dialogue, Community

An interdisciplinary group of nearly 50 Duke faculty and staff participated in the Office for Faculty Advancement’s inaugural pilot cohort for an Experiential Learning Trip January 17 and 18.  

The trip presented a unique opportunity for faculty and staff to engage in experiential learning, which promotes building knowledge through direct experiences, reflection and skill development. The experiential learning initiative is designed to bring participants into dialogue and community while drawing from the broader world to inform their work at Duke.

Content for inaugural trip was informed by data from the 2024 Campus Culture Survey and conversations with faculty and leaders about the types of experiences that would strengthen their work at Duke. Faculty Advancement partnered with the Office for Institutional Equity and Duke historians Thavolia Glymph, Eric Williams and Quinton Dixie to tour the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington.

On arriving in Washington, the group gathered at Duke in D.C. to hear a talk from Williams, assistant professor of Theology and Black Church Studies and director of the Office of Black Church Studies at the Divinity School and a member of the museum’s curatorial staff for seven years. Williams also led a tour of a special exhibition he curated, “Spirit in the Dark: Religion in Black Music, Activism and Popular Culture,” the museum’s first devoted solely to religion, which features photographs from the Johnson Publishing Co. archive.

The group also met with Paul Gardullo and Johanna Obenda, curators of a new special exhibit that takes a global view of slavery, “In Slavery's Wake: Making Black Freedom in the World.” Later that evening, Quinton Dixie, associate research professor of the history of Christianity in the United States and Black church studies, gave a preview of the museum’s permanent collection.

The trip’s highlight was a private tour of the museum by Secretary of the Smithsonian Lonnie Bunch III, the museum’s founding director. Bunch led participants through the entire permanent collection while discussing the funding, design and construction of the museum, which opened on the National Mall in 2016. He also shared personal anecdotes about some of the museum’s notable acquisitions, including a hymnal that belonged to Harriet Tubman, the casket used to bury Emmett Till, and Chuck Berry’s red Cadillac convertible.

Throughout the tour, participants noted the many Duke connections, most notably the museum’s Contemplative Court, which honors late historian and faculty member John Hope Franklin. The museum’s artifacts also include the mug shot of  Duke undergraduate Joan Trumpauer Mulholland who participated in the Freedom Rides in the early 1960s and a photograph of students from Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity in a step show in 1978.

Throughout the trip, participants were asked to reflect on prompts and exercises to help them think about how the exhibits at the museum connected to their work at Duke. After their return, several participants shared thoughts on their experiences during the trip. Several indicated that the trip gave them a deeper understanding and connection to how history continues to shape and influence their roles at Duke each day. A number also reflected that the trip was the most meaningful professional experience of their careers and noted that the opportunity to discuss deeply meaningful topics across disciplines increased the impact of the experience. Many also indicated gaining new insights about how to more effectively engage students and colleagues based on what they learned from the faculty lectures and the museum exhibits.