Seniors Cara Peterson and Brianna Welch created the Duke Culture Initiative, a campus organization intended to increase dialogue and advocacy at the end of last Spring and currently serve as its co-presidents. They sat down with The Chronicle’s Shanen Ganapathee to discuss the group’s origins, intentions and the deeper issues that exist within Duke’s social environment.
The Chronicle: When did you first start thinking about creating this organization?
Cara Peterson: Towards the end of last semester. We were both on the Gender Task Force within Duke Student Government under Stefani Jones.
Brianna Welch: They had multiple different initiatives that they were planning and Cara and I had decided to do the empathy building one.
CP: We were working on a gender violence intervention proposal that had multiple different parts.
BW: The one that we were focusing on was empathy building and that’s how we came together, we first met. Our first idea was empathy building through discussion-—dialogue sessions, because I think the way you can advise someone is by understanding their experiences, hearing about their experiences and trying to put yourself in their shoes. It led to us creating the organization because we decided we wanted to do more than just discussion groups.
TC: How did the process start?
CP: First, we wanted to make sure we weren’t replicating anything that was already out there. So we went to several different organizations. We went to the Women’s Center, we went to Gary Glass at CAPS.
BW: We were also looking for feedback on how to create these dialogue groups and that’s when Cara came across the Greek Culture Initiative.
CP: They put on a study last semester. Basically, they were also an organization that was not continuing. Their leadership was graduating. I think one of the things that you see over and other at Duke is that because students are on four-year cycles, there’s lots of really brilliant ideas that are created over and over again and they graduate with the person. People are continuously recreating the wheel and we were trying to go and see what was already out there, what had already been done and see if there were any frameworks we could work with, build off of. We sort of took the framework. We wanted to make it more inclusive to student groups and organizations.
BW: They did a study. They weren’t really doing advocacy work, although they had other initiatives. We wanted to expand the work they were doing.
CP: We are recognized by the Equity Council that Jacob Tobia [DSG vice president for equity and outreach] created. I think we are one of the five main student groups.
TC: What are the main actions your organization has taken?
CP: This semester our two big initiatives—the first one, we built a bench in collaboration with the Women’s Housing Option. It’s very colorful, and it says, “By sitting on this bench, I open myself to having a conversation with a complete stranger.” There were two goals for that.
BW: One, it is a symbol of engaging people with different identities, so that it gets people talking.
CP: It’s a symbol of inclusivity. Also, pulling people together in a way that would make them interact with people they would not normally interact with because I think one of the things that’s really cool about Duke is the different types of people—different experiences, different interests. The ability to engage in each other’s differences is what really allows you to almost become drawn close to who you are because hearing other people’s experiences allows you to expand your empathy as Brianna mentioned before. You are able to engage in another’s difference that allows you to expand your sense of self because you are not just looking through your own personal vision, but you are also taking a step back and asking yourself, why do I act, socialize and behave in the way that I do—see the bigger picture.
BW: It allows you to challenge social norms and gender norms by seeing things from a different perspective and challenging the status quo because that sometimes can be restrictive to your identity and the way you view other people.
CP: We also have our Gender Identity Summit this weekend. That’s for three days. We are bringing [anti-domestic violence advocate]Ted Bunch. The two main goals of that are to reflect on the ways gender roles constrict both men and women at Duke.
BW: And also how our gender identity can shape our behavior and attitudes and possibly suppress our genuine self because we want to fit a certain mold. We also want to equip the people who attend the summit with the language that they would require to share this and start transforming the norms that guide our culture.
TC: Are you collaborating with other organizations?
BW: We are trying to make sure that we are engaging with all the different institutions. We are collaborating with different advocacy groups and trying to bring them together. We do have many great groups that are more focused on race or class or sexuality and there’s nothing that ties them together. And we wanted to build an organization that builds solidarity and compassion.
CP: It’s critical that we have student organizations like Black Student Alliance, Mi Gente and Blue Devils United, but often times it’s a lot of people coming together to talk about a common identity that they all share. They are talking to people who maybe already get it. And we are trying to create ways so that people are not opting out of issues that maybe do not apply to them as much.
BW: It’s also unifying because it’s trying to say there are many ways people are oppressed because of their identity, whether because of sexuality, or race but we should not be fighting to see who is more oppressed but rather supporting each other in our struggles. That’s what we are trying to do—bridge the gap between all of them.
TC: What goal do you wish the organization to fulfill on campus?
CP: The mission of DCI is to connect and collaborate with all other advocacy organizations on campus to create a shift within Duke’s community, encouraging a culture built on solidarity and compassion. We want to continue dialogues and foster engagement with students of diverse identities and realities, through consciousness-raising campaigns, speakers and events. It is our hope that through this process, individuals will feel a greater sense of urgency in shaping their culture and our Duke community as a whole will be defined by inclusivity, understanding and empathy.
BW: We also have talked to the International Association at the Equity Council and we are exposing international students to this as well. The head of that organization—she’d said they actually had difficulty fitting into our culture and that’s something we want to address.
CP: We also want to ask, “What is Duke culture?” I think a lot of people think there is this set thing. Those people over there define Duke culture and we are really trying to get people to think that, “I may as a Duke student have the ability to shape what Duke culture is.” We have a specific committee that targets first-year students because I think a lot of times people come in to Duke and they are so set on trying to figure out what the Duke culture is and they do not really think about what they are trying to fit into in the first place. One of the things Brianna always talks about is how important it is to reflect on one’s own personal values and the types of decisions you want to be making.
BW: The first step is awareness and introspection. I feel a lot of students don’t take the time to do that. If you don’t know who you want to be and what motivates you, you can’t really have the confidence and act on it.
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