Renovated Humanities Building Named after Ernestine Friedl

Duke University has named the former art museum on East Campus after renowned anthropologist and long-time Duke faculty member Ernestine Friedl, President Richard Brodhead announced Monday during a reception reopening the renovated building.

Formerly known as the Science Building before it became Duke's art museum, the facility now houses the departments of African & African American Studies and Cultural Anthropology, the Programs in Literature and Latino/a Studies, the Institute for Critical US Studies, the Institute for Critical Theory and the Duke Human Rights Center. It will be one of the university's centers for teaching and learning in the humanities.

Friedl, a James B. Duke Professor Emerita, is "one of the most noted anthropologists in the world," Brodhead said, and she has been instrumental in pioneering new scholarship at Duke and around the globe.

"Her legacy is all around us," Brodhead told about 60 Duke faculty, staff, students and community members as he unveiled a plaque that commended Friedl for being an "innovative scholar, breaking intellectual and disciplinary boundaries," a "builder of great faculty" and a "person of ever-young spirit, with a warmth and humanity that endears her to all."

Friedl, a 1950 graduate of Columbia, came to Duke in 1973 to chair the newly formed Department of Cultural Anthropology. She became Duke's first woman dean of Trinity College and the faculty of arts and sciences from 1980 to 1985. During her tenure as dean, the Women's Studies Program at Duke was established.

Friedl's fieldwork in a Greek village was the first published study on modern Greece. Other pathbreaking works uses the tools of anthropology to explore gender roles.

Following the reception, Friedl said that housing several humanities programs in one building will foster communication and encourage collaboration.

"I think it's wonderful to have so many different programs and resources in one place," she said. "I feel very honored and thrilled to be associated with this building."

George Lipsitz speaks at the ceremony.

The ceremony followed a talk by George Lipsitz, a leading scholar of black studies and sociology at the University of California at San Diego. Lipsitz said universities must exist as a place to explore and challenge ideas and must resist strong pressures to conform to marketplace pressures.

Lipsitz encouraged faculty members to engage their own communities as activists and bring change through work in schools and other public arenas.

Sally Hicks contributed to this story.