Leadership Changes in Area Studies Centers

New Leaders Take the Helm at Duke’s International Centers

-By OGA Staff

December 27, 2022

This year and next will see some changes in the directorships of two area studies centers at Duke. The Asian Pacific Studies Institute (APSI) will bid farewell to the competent directorship of Richard Jaffe, while welcoming Prasenjit Duara as its new head for the next three years. Additionally, 2023 will see the end of Ambassador Patrick Duddy’s leading role at the stern of the Caribbean and Latin American Studies Center (CLACS). Stepping into that position will be Liliana Paredes.

APSI

Prasenjit Duara is the Oscar Tang Chair of East Asian Studies at Duke University.  Born and educated in India, he received his PhD in Chinese history from Harvard University. He was Professor and chairman of History at University of Chicago (1991-2008) and Raffles Professor and Director of Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore (2008-2015).  He was the President of the American Association for Asian Studies (2019-20). His books include Culture, Power and the State: Rural North China, 1900-1942 [(Stanford Univ Press) winner of Fairbank Prize of the AHA and Levenson Prize of the AAS, USA], Rescuing History from the Nation (U Chicago 1995), Sovereignty and Authenticity: Manchukuo and the East Asian Modern (Rowman 2003) and The Crisis of Global Modernity: Asian Traditions and a Sustainable Future (Cambridge 2014). His work has been widely translated into Chinese, Japanese, Korean and the European languages. He was awarded the doctor philosophiae honoris causa from the University of Oslo in 2017.

CLACS

Liliana Paredes, Professor of the Practice in the Department of Romance Studies, holds a PhD in Spanish Linguistics from the University of Southern California. Her interests range from second language teaching, inclusive and transformative pedagogies, trans-languaging practices in the language class to issues of language justice and linguistic human rights. With Sandra Valnes-Quammen (Director of the French Language Program, Romance Studies), Paredes investigates the effect of a trans-languaging pedagogy to reframe how language learning is understood and enacted to celebrate multiple languages in the classroom and allow students to explore their developing of multilingual identities.In Peru, Paredes’ works in collaboration with Nila Vigil (Red de Formadores en Educación e Interculturalidad de America Latina) exploring identity-based education to foster intercultural practices and enhance the maintenance or revitalization of minoritized languages and their histories and culture.

“I’m extremely grateful to Prasenjit and Liliana for stepping into these roles,” said Eve Duffy, Associate Vice Provost for Global Affairs, “while at the same time I’m very mindful and appreciative of the contributions of Richard and Patrick. Especially during the pandemic, they stepped up and helped us to maintain our community here on campus as well as our ties with the larger world.”

CLACS is a Tile VI Center funded by the Department of Education. APSI offers an MA in East Asian Studies that has attracted students from around the globe. Both centers connect with faculty, students and staff across Duke as well as with community members from Durham and the broader region.