Center for Documentary Studies

Let’s face it—the academy can be stodgy. And lo and behold, the Duke brand has its healthy share of fluorescent hallways and tiny desks, airplane-hanger lecture halls and 75-minute monologues.

But though this might be in many ways the alpha of the college education, it’s hardly the omega, and nothing represents the vital counterpart better than the Center for Documentary Studies.

Headquartered in the sprawling, multi-tiered Bridges House—which exists as a uniquely Southern marriage of aesthetic and functionality—CDS gives any Duke student the chance to get an education grounded in practice. Go ahead, don’t be shy—you’re a closet This American Life acolyte? Take a course in audio documentary. Grew up bingeing on PBS’ 10-part Ken Burns maximalism? Learn how to tell a story with a camera. Have a stack of New Yorkers six feet high? Study the masters and then learn their techniques.

I have one regret about my college career: that I didn’t discover CDS sooner. For anyone interested in both the art and the artistry of narrative, the place is a Mecca fit to bust with cutting-edge equipment, much of it housed in a documentary armory called the Cage, and the best minds in their fields there to teach you to use it.

Most significantly, and unlike other winners of prestigious awards at this and other universities, these professors actually want to teach you and make you better. Storytelling remains an act of humanity at its core, and the most expensive equipment in the world can’t replace that.