"Science and society have influenced and have been influenced by the creation, reproduction and maintenance of racial hierarchies."
That is the catalyst behind the creative programming for the Race, Genomics and Society course at Duke. Charmaine Royal, the Robert O. Keohane Professor of African & African American Studies and Biology and director of the Duke Center for Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation, has taught the course since 2009. The creative portions of have grown to include partnerships with Duke Arts. Students of the course help translate the findings of scientific research into music, spoken word, dramatic skits and dance. The culminating student performance, "Race and Genetics: Past-Present-Future," was held at Page Auditorium to close the Fall 2023 semester.
These photographs showcase both the preparation and the performance.
For six weeks, students rehearsed and prepared scripts, visuals and choreography for their performance on December 7, 2023.
A partnership with Duke Arts has expanded the students' range of creative storytelling opportunities. A production team, a stage crew and a logistical support team came together to support the performance.
Paul Kartcheske, production manager at Duke Arts, guided a final rehearsal in the Nelson Music Hall on East Campus three days before the public performance.
Earlier in the semester, students' research on the topic of race and genomics was informed by scholarship in the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and Royal's publication in the New England Journal of Medicine, among others. "Although genetics and other scientific research has confirmed that our species is not divided by biological races," Royal writes in the playbill summary, "scholarly tensions, popular confusion, and social inequities persist."
Taking their final bow, Charmaine Royal joins hands with Paul Kartcheske as they celebrate the students' success and their years of partnership to make this course a vivid expression of learning and translation. Royal has called this course "transdisciplinary."
"The course explores human identity, human variation and human health through a range of scientific, ethical, legal, sociological and biomedical considerations," Royal writes.
