Research Centers & Programs
The Sanford School of Public Policy provides a dynamic campus hub for interdisciplinary research centers exploring vital policy questions in the field and in the classroom. Headed by a director, the centers have faculty drawn from both the Sanford School and across the university. Some centers also have support staff and research assistants. The centers provide students the opportunity to participate in research projects and special course offerings. The centers also bring in guest speakers and hold conferences of interest to the Sanford community. Listed are both centers housed within the Sanford School, as well as university-wide centers in which public policy faculty are active.
Sanford Affiliates
Center on Science & Technology Policy serves as an interdisciplinary hub for science and technology policy analysis and fosters deeper ties between the university and the local and global tech communities. The center is a joint venture between the Sanford School and the Duke Initiative for Science & Society.
Counterterrorism and Public Policy Fellowship Program provides mid-career military and civilian national security officials with an academic year of instruction in national security studies and the policymaking process, as well as more directed courses in areas such as intelligence, counterterrorism policy, and regional studies.
DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy works to sustain the accountability function of journalism through research, education, policy development, and professional training. The center manages the Policy Journalism and Media Studies Certificate and the Duke Reporter’s Lab.
Duke Center for Child and Family Policy seeks to solve problems facing children in contemporary society by bringing together scholars from many disciplines with policymakers and practitioners.
Hart Leadership Program is the first endowed undergraduate program at a major university to emphasize ethics, service, social entrepreneurship, and the responsibilities of leadership as part of its curriculum.
The James B. Hunt Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy is a nationally recognized leader in educational policy, dedicated to empowering governors, policymakers and educational leaders in the development and implementation of strategies to transform public education.
POLIS: Center for Politics engages the Duke community in meeting a great challenge of our time: restoring the health of our politics through leadership, innovation and service. Through teaching, research, and collective engagement, the center aims to inspire and empower Duke students to participate in political life in all its forms, and to improve democratic processes in the United States and around the world.
Samuel and Ronnie Heyman Center: The Program for Emerging Societal Challenges rotates its programmatic focus every few years to address emerging societal challenges, including the role of nonprofit and philanthropic networks. Each topic cycle is led by a faculty member with relevant expertise and a vision for shaping public dialogue and engagement. The center sponsors convenings and provides opportunities for Fleishman Fellows and nonprofit leaders-in-residence.
Triangle Institute for Security Studies is an interdisciplinary consortium founded in 1958 and sponsored by Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill and NC State University to advance research and education concerning national and international security, broadly defined.
The World Food Policy Center addresses four broad categories of food issues: hunger, malnutrition and food insecurity; obesity and chronic diseases such as diabetes; agriculture and the environment, including biodiversity, GMOs, climate change, water, and other issues; and food safety and defense. It seeks to create a global network of people working on food issues to create a world food policy idea bank.
Duke University Research Centers and Institutes Related to Public Policy
Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University teaches, engages in, and presents documentary work grounded in collaborative partnerships and extended fieldwork. CDS promotes documentary work that cultivates progressive change by amplifying voices, advancing human dignity, engendering respect among individuals, breaking down barriers to understanding, and illuminating social injustices.
Center for Health Policy and Inequalities Research bridges science, law, and public policy to provide policy and legal solutions to crucial public health issues.
Center for Law, Economics, and Public Policy organizes workshops, conferences, and other scholarly activities in law and economics, with a particular focus on the intersection between welfare economics and normative questions regarding legal frameworks, institutions and doctrines.
Center on Law, Ethics and National Security encourages and sponsors teaching, research, and publications concerning national security law topics, as well as conducting conferences and seminars in the national security field. Additionally, it seeks to provide a focus on national security decision-making from an ethical perspective.
Duke Center for International Development addresses specific policy issues associated with globalization and international development through training, graduate-level education, advisory programs, and related research.
Duke American Grand Strategy Program is an interdisciplinary program that blends education and scholarship. Our mission is to raise future leaders by having students study past strategists and engage with current leaders. Through workshops, distinguished lectures, and courses, participants in AGS have the opportunity to interact with leaders from the world of policy as well as the best scholars writing on these topics today.
The Duke Population Research Institute (DuPRI) is dedicated to the conceptual unification of the demographic sciences. Its affiliated faculty and research scientists are drawn from the fields of sociology, public policy, economics, biology, genetics, botany, and applied and pure mathematics, among others.
Duke Sexual and Gender Minority Health Program is an initiative to support sexual and gender minority health through three areas of excellence: groundbreaking research, best practices in care & clinical practice, and public policy formation. More information is available at dukesgmhealth.org.
Kenan Institute for Ethics is a university-wide initiative that supports the study and teaching of ethics and promotes moral reflection and commitment in personal, professional, community, and civic life. The institute’s work is guided by the conviction that universities have a responsibility to prepare students for lives of personal integrity and reflective citizenship by nurturing their capacities for critical thinking, compassion, courage, and their concern for justice.
Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment and Sustainability’s mission is to become the nation’s leading source of effective solutions to critical environmental problems by providing decision-makers in the public and private sectors with unbiased evaluations of policy risks and rewards and innovative, practical ideas for meeting complex challenges.
Program in Public Law promotes better understanding of our nation’s public institutions, of the constitutional framework in which they function, and of the principles and laws that apply to the work of public officials.
The Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity is a scholarly collaborative engaged in the study of the causes and consequences of inequality and in the assessment and redesign of remedies for inequality and its adverse effects. Director:
The Social Science Research Institute supports innovative, externally funded research that bridges to policy, integrates knowledge and service, and makes the translation between theory and practice.