The inTransit working group allied with other working groups across the university who were investigating issues related to migration from complementary perspectives. As allies, we aimed to offer joint materials to a variety of publics and participants; to explore imaginative forms of productive conversations and collaborations involving students, faculty and the community beyond Duke; and to share resources and opportunities.

In Duke’s spirit of integrative work and with the support of the Romance Studies Global Strategy and Partnership Initiative, we aligned our efforts to create long-lasting synergies that can activate future projects and extend the learning communities we are building. A network structure promotes active ownership, non-hierarchical and decentralized nodes of collaboration, and gives greater visibility to available opportunities. The combined partnerships seek long-lasting networks and actions that contribute to advancing the shared public mission of the University and our partners, and as a result, resources multiply offering more than the sum of the parts of each participant. These combined communities are at the center of a virtuous cycle involving the Duke community and external collaborators – public, private and social – beyond Duke.

inTransit partnered with the Nasher Museum of Art, the Rubenstein Arts Center, Duke Libraries, the John Hope Franklin Center. It was sponsored by the departments of Romance Studies and Art, Art History and Visual Studies; by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States and the Duke Center for French and Francophone Studies; by the Center for International and Global Studies; and the Social Practice Lab of the Franklin Humanities Institute.

inTransit also benefited from an Intellectual Communities grant from the Provost’s Office, and an Arts and Sciences Council Research grant; support from the Office of the Vice Provost for the Arts, the Office of the Dean of the Humanities, the Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Foundation, the Duke Human Rights Archive, the Duke Africa Initiative, and the Puffin Foundation.