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“Duke Crushes,” an exciting new gig soliciting anonymous romantic proclamations, is gaining popularity on Facebook. Individuals write anonymous notes, which get published on the profile’s wall. Reading “Duke Crushes” gave me a lot of food for thought on the ways in which we express love and perceive love proclamations in our community.
“Is this the right chapel?” a tourist asked me at the West Campus bus stop, standing in the shadow of the 210-foot-tall tower. It was one of those moments life just doesn’t prepare you for. The building’s dominance over Duke’s campus made me wonder about the way the University reconciles its “historical, formal, on-going and symbolic ties with Methodism” with its status as a non-sectarian and independent institution. With a renowned divinity school enrolling some 550 students, it is hard to judge whether Duke’s religious affiliation is more historic than on-going. As a contemporary educational institution, Duke has yet to answer some conceptual questions about its academic profile. Does theology have a place in a 21st-century university? Is teaching theology in the Divinity School compatible with the premises of scholarly inquiry an academic institution’s work is based on? Should the University try to reassess the role of the Divinity School within its structure?
This Wednesday I passed by a rally organized by students, including senior Ting-Ting Zhou, president of the Asian Students Association at Duke, in protest of a recent fraternity themed party whose references to cultural identity were found “offensive” and “racist.” This is obviously a matter of perception: I don’t suppose a French person would be offended if I dressed up as a musketeer, and I know of no Swedes who would find a Viking costume insulting or racist. When pop culture incorporates a national ware and other parts of cultural identity, it inevitably trivializes it, extracting the most jovial, funny, appealing (and most easily commercialized) aspects—and there’s nothing wrong with that. We all realize that Spartan soldiers didn’t exactly look like tanned supermodels in speedos, as shown in “300,” and that there’s more to the Sicilian culture than Vito Corleone. But these are all popular, 21st century interpretations of culture aimed to entertain, not diminish or discriminate one’s culture, race or nationality.
I don’t usually write columns, and I’m not on Twitter. Call me an introvert. Yet, as I read with interest a piece titled “Greatness” in the Jan. 11 edition of The Chronicle, I felt it needed a response. So, in poorly but honestly written lines I will try to articulate the most problematic aspects of the author’s claims and views conveyed in her column.
