Celebrating the Legacy of Duke Immerse
For thirteen years, Duke Immerse stood as a signature undergraduate experience — bringing together students and faculty in small, interdisciplinary cohorts to engage deeply with the world’s most pressing global challenges.
Through immersive coursework, close faculty mentorship, and experiential learning in communities near and far, Duke Immerse reimagined what a semester could be.
The impact of Duke Immerse was made possible by the generosity of donors, whose support enabled deep faculty–student engagement and lasting innovation in experiential education at Duke.
Origins and Vision
Launched in Spring 2012 by the Academic Council Committee on Undergraduate Education, Duke Immerse was designed to integrate rigorous academic inquiry with real-world experience.
The program reflected a shared belief that some of the most powerful learning happens when students and faculty step beyond traditional classroom boundaries — together.
Each semester-long experience centered on a single global theme, uniting multiple disciplines and perspectives in a cohesive, collaborative learning environment.
4 Courses
taught by Duke faculty
Central Theme
focused on a global challenge
Small Cohort
18 students or less
Campus & Beyond
7-10 day travel included
Duke Immerse by the Numbers
2012-2025
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10-18 students per cohort
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Ranging from first-years to seniors
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Offered over 37 semesters
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Taught by 55 faculty and instructors
Global Themes
Across its thirteen-year history, Duke Immerse addressed some of the most urgent questions of our time. Programs invited students to examine complex global challenges through historical, political, cultural, scientific, and ethical lenses—often simultaneously.
Explore Duke Immerse themes:
Deconstructing / Reconstructing the Refugee Experience
- Offered 6 Semesters | spring 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019
- Total Students | 57
- Description | Students engaged in a longitudinal, community-based research project examining human displacement through refugee narratives, host communities, and international law, combining fieldwork in Durham with travel to Bhutanese refugee camps in eastern Nepal and Iraqi communities in Cairo, Egypt, and Amman, Jordan.
Rights & Identities in the Americas: Human rights, Indigenous peoples, and contemporary challenges
- Offered 5 Semesters | fall 2013, 2014, 2017, 2019; spring 2016
- Total Students | 43
- Description | Students examined human rights principles related to migration, indigeneity, and minority communities through independent field research, conducting interviews in Durham, North Carolina, Mexico City and Puebla, Mexico, and traveling across North Carolina, Mexico, and/or Chile while engaging in collaborative study and public arts projects.
Civil Discourse and Democracy
- Offered 1 Semester | fall 2024
- Total Students | 11
- Description | Students engaged in an interdisciplinary exploration of civil discourse and democracy, examining how public debate is shaped by policymakers, higher education, and the media, and how the erosion of civil discourse has affected democratic practice in the United States and the UK.
Governance, Policy & Society: Urban affairs & urban politics in the American South & South Africa
- Offered 7 Semesters | fall 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2021
- Total Students | 59
- Description | Students examined urban life, governance, and policymaking in the American South and South Africa through comparative, place-based study of cities shaped by enduring racial and class divisions.
Freedom Struggles in the 20th Century: A comparison of the civil rights movement in the American South & South Africa’s Anti-Apartheid struggles
- Offered 4 Semesters | spring 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016
- Total Students | 41
- Description | Students immersed themselves in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement and South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle through classroom study, site visits, and engagement with scholars and activists, including a meeting with Archbishop Desmond Tutu in spring 2014.
Equity & Education through the Lens of Social Justice, Human Rights, & Activism
- Offered 5 Semesters | spring 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019
- Total Students | 49
- Description | Undergraduate pre-service teachers applied intercultural learning in diverse educational contexts through partnerships in Pune, India and New York City schools.
Inequalities in the U.S. & China
- Offered 1 Semester | fall 2020
- Total Students | 14
- Description | Students conducted interdisciplinary, cross-national research on social inequality under the mentorship of Duke University and Renmin University of China scholars, examining configurations of power across money, race, health, education, history, place, and culture.
Pandemics, Health & Power
- Offered 1 Semester | fall 2021
- Total Students | 6
- Description | Students explored how history, culture, and inequality shaped health and healthcare during pandemics and disasters, combining scientific study of infectious disease with oral histories, community engagement, and interdisciplinary analysis of health disparities.
Oceans, Human & Environmental Health
- Offered 3 Semesters | fall 2020, 2023, 2024
- Total Students | 27
- Description | Students examined the intersections of human and environmental health in marine systems through field-based study at the Duke Marine Lab, Duke Kunshan University, and the Galápagos, integrating scientific assessment, environmental justice, and policy analysis across diverse cultural contexts.
Sustainability: Ocean-Based Solutions
- Offered 1 Semester | fall 2024
- Total Students | 14
- Description | Students examined ocean-based sustainability solutions for global food and energy needs through immersive study of aquaculture, offshore wind energy, and marine policy, grounded in semester-long residence at the Duke Marine Lab and field-based learning in France, Belgium, and the Faroe Islands (Denmark).
Urban Environmental Justice & Social Entrepreneurship
- Offered 1 Semester | spring 2015
- Total Students | 7
- Description | Students participated in a semester-long exchange with Paul Quinn College in Dallas, Texas, collaborating across institutions to address environmental injustice through community-based participatory research, restoration ecology, and social entrepreneurship.
Imagining the Future of Food
- Offered 2 Semesters | fall 2018, 2021
- Total Students | 21
- Description | Students explored food systems at the intersections of equity and climate change through interdisciplinary study, hands-on work at the Duke Campus Farm, life cycle assessment training, and field visits across eastern North Carolina and northern California.
Experiential learning led Duke Immerse students all over the world...
Students conducted fieldwork and experiential projects across the United States and around the world, including visits to the Duke Marine Lab, Duke Kunshan University, and communities across Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East.
These experiences grounded academic inquiry in lived reality, deepening students’ understanding of global systems, local contexts, and their own roles as engaged scholars.
Student & Faculty Testimonials
Student Stories
Faculty Insights
With Gratitude
Duke Immerse was made possible through the generous support of donors who believed in the power of experiential education.
Initial funding from the Wallace Fowlie Fund for Teaching & Learning, the Undergraduate Program Enhancement Fund, and the Mary DBT & JH Semans International Exchange Endowment laid the foundation for the program.
In 2020, the establishment of the J. & A. Shroff Endowed Duke Immerse Fund marked the program’s first permanent endowment, ensuring sustained support for its mission.
Duke Immerse was administered within the Office of Undergraduate Education’s Division of Experiential Education.
A Lasting Legacy
While Duke Immerse concluded in Fall 2025, its impact continues — through the students it shaped, the faculty collaborations it inspired, and the enduring influence it has had on experiential learning at Duke.
This site stands as a reflection on what was possible when curiosity, collaboration, and commitment came together in service of undergraduate education.
