Soon millions of Americans will turn their attention to the red carpet in Hollywood for the Academy Awards. In advance of the big night, two Dukies with insights into the world of film and celebrity will participate 1 p.m. Feb. 25, in a live "Office Hours" webcast conversation on the Oscars. Watch the webcast live on the Duke YouTube channel and Tweet in your comments and questions to @DukeOfficeHours. Deirdre Haj, executive director of the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, will be...

In January, Duke announced the Bass Connections initiative to encourage students and faculty to collaborate across traditional academic boundaries and to develop the broad expertise and perspective needed to tackle complex societal problems. The effort now has 37 teams of students, faculty and partners outside the university working in areas such as energy, global health and brain and society. Members from one of the teams will participated in a live "Office Hours" webcast conversation Dec....

In an attempt to address global changes in climate, the Obama administration plans to use the Clean Air Act to limit greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. The first set of proposed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations -- aimed at reducing power plants' carbon emissions -- is due by Sept. 20. In this live webcast conversation, three Duke scholars discussed the legal, political, environmental and economic implications of the proposed regulations. Participating in the...

Hundreds of people have been arrested at the North Carolina Legislative Building as part of the "Moral Mondays" protests against policies by the Republican-led legislature and Gov. Pat McCrory. Five of those people -- Duke professors Willie Jennings, Robin Kirk, Bill Turner, Jed Purdy and Bill Chafe -- participated in a live webcast interview about the protests Monday, July 1. Also joining the conversation was Duke alumnus David Graham who wrote a recent article for The Atlantic about the...

Duke finance professor John Graham and CFO Publishing vice president Celina Rogers discuss the latest results from the Duke/CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook Survey. Duke Fuqua School public relations manager Erin Medlyn hosts the conversation. The survey found U.S. businesses trail their global counterparts in terms of how much importance they place on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability. Nearly half of U.S. chief financial officers rate CSR and sustainability as...

Duke's Steven Churchill and an international team of colleagues published the second wave of papers in the journal Science from their analysis of two South African specimens called Australopithecus sediba. He is joined by his colleague, Boston University's Jeremy DeSilva, in describing the latest findings in a conversation hosted by Duke's Karl Bates. This latest round of analysis goes deeper into several areas of the anatomy of the two spectacularly complete A. sediba specimens and turns up...

What does it take to get into medical school and to excel once you have been admitted? In a live "Office Hours" webcast interview, Dr. Ed Buckley, vice dean for education for Duke's School of Medicine, discusses the MCATs, medical school applications and the future of medical education. Duke's School of Medicine's curriculum differs from some other medical schools. Students study the basic sciences for one year instead of two, giving them the opportunity to devote their entire third year to...

College seniors will soon graduate and take their first steps down career paths that may take unforeseen directions. In his 30 years as a college career counselor, William Wright-Swadel has picked up some wisdom about the road ahead for soon-to-be graduates, which he'll share in a live "Office Hours" webcast interview at noon Friday, April 5. "One common myth is the overstated significance of one's first opportunity after graduation," says Wright-Swadel, the Fannie Mitchell executive...

Duke biologist Sönke Johnsen plunges deep into the ocean to understand how creatures on the seafloor see. In a live "Office Hours" webcast interview Johnsen discusses how the animals produce and detect light far underwater -- where there's little sunlight. For his research, Johnsen has received a multi-million dollar grant from the Navy to investigate underwater camouflage. He has studied the eyesight of deep-sea crabs and giant squid. And he has a new book out called "The Optics of Life: A...

Even though the United States could possibly become the world's largest oil producer by 2020, America would still not be "energy independent." U.S. energy production would continue to be tied to global markets and climate concerns, according to professor Richard Newell, director of Duke's Energy Initiative. In a live "Office Hours" webcast interview on Feb. 22, 2013, he discusses advances and limits in American energy production. Newell, the Gendel Professor of Energy and Environmental...

The fabled city of Timbuktu has recently been a center of conflict between the French military and Islamic militants. Complicating the clash are tensions within Mali among the country's ethnic groups. In a live "Office Hours" webcast interview Feb. 8, Duke professor Bruce Hall explains some of the historical and cultural context of the conflict. Watch the interview live on this webpage or on Duke Today. Post a question for Hall on Twitter using @DukeOfficeHours or the Duke Office Hours...

As an architectural historian, Professor Caroline Bruzelius works with mathematicians, architects and computer scientists to develop virtual models of ancient buildings and artworks so scholars and laymen can better understand the past. In a live "Office Hours" webcast interview Jan. 25, 2013, she explains her approach to animating historical objects. "Space is really like an ameba," Bruzelius said in a talk last year. "Even if it's made out of brick or stone, it changes all the time....

In the wake of last month's deadly shootings in Newtown, Conn., President Obama said the U.S. must consider new ways to combat gun violence. Public policy professor Philip J. Cook, who has long studied the effectiveness of gun control efforts in this country, participates in this live "Office Hours" webcast interview on the topic at noon Friday, Jan. 11, 2013. A recent article in the (Raleigh) News and Observer describes the many media interviews Cook has done in the wake of the Newtown...

Luke Bretherton is new to Duke from England. A professor of ethics in Duke's Divinity School, he writes on a contentious topic -- how Christians should engage in politics. "Politics without piety is pitiless; piety without politics is pitiful," he writes in his latest book "Christianity & Contemporary Politics." In this "Office Hours" interview, he identifies key Christian voices on politics, describes virtues of the Southern Populist Movement, and lists strengths and weaknesses of the...

A founder of multiple companies himself, Jesko von Windheim was already teaching entrepreneurship courses at Duke when he recently joined the Nicholas faculty to lead the new environmental entrepreneurship certificate program. Classes in the two-year program will train students to understand business models and financial statements, use case studies of real entrepreneurship and translate an academic idea into a virtual start-up. In this "Office Hours" interview, he talks about how to teach...

Duke Chapel's new dean is Luke Powery. Both a scholar and practitioner of the African-American preaching tradition, Powery comes to Duke from Princeton Theological Seminary. He is the chapel's first dean who is black. In an Office Hours conversation, he described how he's coming to understand the chapel's role, his approach to preaching and what hymn has been in his head since arriving on campus.

Professor Eric Meyers says archaeology in Israel and Palestine can give context for biblical narratives. In his new book, "Alexander to Constantine," co-authored with Mark Chancey, Ph.D. '99, he argues that Hellenistic culture gave Judaism, and later Christianity, a vehicle for worldwide expression.

On May 8th, North Carolina residents will vote on Amendment One, which proposes adding a clause to the state constitution that would define marriage as being only between a man and a woman. Janie Long, director of Duke's Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Life (LGBT), opposes the amendment and is concerned about how its passage might affect Duke students and families. Long, a 1981 graduate of Duke Divinity School, has served as the director of the LGBT center since...

In his book "Race: A Theological Account" J. Kameron Carter examines the role of Christianity and Western philosophy in the making of modern perceptions of race. He also uses slave narratives and early Christian thought to find theological arguments he says can counter modern misunderstandings of race and point to a new orientation for the faith. In a live "Office Hours" conversation April 5, 2012, the Divinity School professor answers questions from online viewers about the connection...