Modes of Inquiry

The Curriculum requires the completion of six* Modes of Inquiry:

  1. The first three Modes of Inquiry address important cross-cutting themes that transcend individual disciplines and may be approached from various disciplinary perspectives. Students need to be prepared to grapple with issues pertaining to these themes throughout their lives and careers.

    • Cross-Cultural Inquiry (CCI)   In a world where globalization is reshaping politics and economics as well as social and cultural relations, Duke students need formal and academic experience in exploring differences among peoples and among social systems with national and international contexts. CCI seeks to provide students with the tools to identify culture and cultural difference across time or place. It encourages critical and responsible attention to issues of identity, diversity, globalization, and power, so that students may evaluate complex and difficult issues from multiple perspectives.

    • Ethical Inquiry (EI)    Ethical issues and values frame and shape human conduct and ways of life. Courses coded EI encourage students to develop and apply skills in ethical reasoning, to assess critically the consequences of actions, both individual and societal, and to sharpen their understanding of the ethical and political implications of public and personal decision-making.


    • Science, Technology, and Society (STS)    Advances in science and technology have profoundly influenced society in the modern era. They have changed our world - both its philosophical foundations, as in the Copernican or Darwinian revolutions, and in its practical everyday experience, as in the rise of the automobile and television. STS exposes students to concepts that they need in order to confront scientific and technological issues. Courses coded STS not only explore how science and technology have affected societal development but also how the needs of society have influenced scientific and technological development.


      •
  2. The second set of three Modes is intended to help students develop certain critical proficiencies that will serve them well at Duke and in the rapidly changing, complex world they will enter after college. These three Modes include: Foreign Language (FL), Research (R), and Writing (W). The requirements of each of these three modes are different and are described below.

    • Foreign Language (FL)The foreign language requirement may be met in different ways, depending upon the level at which students begin the study of the language in question.

      • If you begin your language study at Duke at the intermediate level or above, you can fulfill the language requirement by completing a 100-level course coded FL.
        Therefore...

        • if you place into the first semester of the intermediate level, you will take three courses in the same language;

        • if you place into the second semester of the intermediate level, you will take two courses in the same language;

        • if you place into the 100-level, you will take one course.
        The only exception to this pattern of enrollment is that in certain languages (excluding Latin, Greek, and the Romance and Germanic languages), the Director of Undergraduate Studies may certify completion of the foreign language requirement based upon course work through the full intermediate (sub-100) level alone. This exception is made only in certain languages in which the acquisition of proficiency is generally acknowledged to be particularly difficult.
      • If you begin your language study at Duke at the elementary level, you can fulfill the foreign language requirement in that language by completing three (3) courses coded FL.

      Note: Courses completed in order to fulfill the foreign language requirement must all be taken in the same language.

    • Research (R)Research courses encourage students to become active participants in the discovery, critical evaluation, and application of knowledge. Courses coded R enable students to come to terms with the ways that new knowledge is created, organized, accessed, and synthesized in the various disciplines. Students who matriculated in Fall 2002 and subsequently must complete two research-intensive courses (coded R). Students who matriculated in Fall 2001 must complete one course coded R.

    • Writing (W)Effective writing is central to learning and communication. The Writing requirement is designed to provide students with sustained engagement with writing throughout their undergraduate career. The first-year writing experience helps students to develop the intellectual, organizational, and expository skills appropriate to university study. Later writing-intensive courses link writing to various fields of study, thereby providing students with the opportunity to deepen these skills.

      To fulfill the Writing requirement students must complete both of the following:
      • Writing 20, to be completed in either the fall or spring of the first year, and

      • Two writing-intensive courses (coded W) in the disciplines, at least one of which must be taken after the first year.
Required for Students who Matriculated Prior to 2004