Duke President Richard H. Brodhead to be Inaugurated Sept. 18

DURHAM, N.C. -- Richard H. Brodhead will be inaugurated as Duke University's ninth president on Saturday, Sept. 18. The inauguration will be the culmination of a week-long celebration with activities ranging from cultural and community events to discussions of global issues, University Marshal Richard A. White, chair of the inaugural committee, announced Friday.

Brodhead, 57, assumed Duke's presidency on July 1, succeeding Nannerl O. Keohane, who stepped down after 11 years to return to teaching and research. A scholar of 19th-century American literature, Brodhead previously was the dean of Yale College and the A. Bartlett Giamatti Professor of English at Yale University.

His inaugural ceremony, to begin at 3 p.m., will be held outdoors in the Duke Chapel Quadrangle. The public is invited to join the Duke community and invited guests for the event, which is expected to attract several thousand students, faculty and staff, as well as guests from government, other colleges and universities, neighboring institutions in the Research Triangle area and others. The ceremony will be moved into Duke Chapel in case of rain.

Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka is among those featured in a series of free inaugural events open to the public. Soyinka, a Nigerian author and playwright who was the first African to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, will deliver the inaugural lecture at 3:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 17, in the Griffith Film Theater in the Bryan Center.

That evening, Nigerian playwright Ola Rotimi's play "The Gods Are Not to Blame" will be presented in the Reynolds Theater in the Bryan Center. The play is open to the public; tickets can be purchased beginning Aug. 23 by calling (919) 684-4444 or ordering online at www.tickets.duke.edu.

Also open to the public are panel discussions on Friday and Saturday. At 1:45 p.m. Friday, Sept. 17, the first two discussions will take place in Von Canon rooms A and B in the Bryan Center. Dr. Victor J. Dzau, the new chancellor for health affairs and president and chief operating officer of the Duke University Health System, will lead a session on "Global Health." Anne Allison, associate professor of cultural anthropology, will moderate the other session, on "Globalization of Culture."

The second set of discussions will take place at 9:30 and 11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 18, in Von Canon rooms A and C. Bruce Jentleson, director of the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy at Duke, will moderate a session on "Global Challenges." Author Reynolds Price, the James B. Duke Professor of English, will moderate a session on "Duke University: Past, Present and Future."

The public also is invited to a free performance by the Duke Chorale/Wind Symphony in Baldwin Auditorium at 8 p.m. Sept. 14.

The final public event will be a Sunday worship service in Duke Chapel that begins at 11 a.m. Sept. 19. The preacher will be Richard Lischer, the James T. and Alice Mead Cleland Professor of Preaching at the Duke Divinity School.

In addition to the public events, the university is organizing a week-long series of activities that begins at 11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 11, with "Into the City," a day of community service in Durham in which Duke students will be involved. Brodhead and his wife, Cynthia, will greet the students and visit some of the projects.

Other activities in which Brodhead will participate include:

-- A Sept. 13 Durham community celebration at the Lyon Park Clinic at the Community Family Life Center and the West End community in Durham.

-- A Sept. 14 meeting with first-year student leaders.

-- A Sept. 15 luncheon for employees of Durham Regional Hospital.

-- A Sept. 15 reception for graduate and professional school students at the Fox Student Center at the Fuqua School of Business.

-- A Sept. 16 lunchtime gathering with Duke employees.

-- A Sept. 16 meeting with Duke Hospital employees.