2022 in Review: Duke Expertise in the Opinion Pages
Duke faculty, staff and students wrote more than 250 opinion pieces in 2022 that appeared in media outlets as close to home as the Triangle and as far away as China.
These scholars tackled some of the most dynamic issues of the day, demonstrating the university’s commitment to public intellectualism and a desire to empower and promote bold thinkers.
Here is a sampling of what these authors tackled this year.
ECONOMICS
“The blockchain technology behind cryptocurrency was supposed to make events like this a thing of the past. But FTX’s business was to serve as a gateway into (and out of) cryptocurrency. That business still depends on humans to serve as honest gatekeepers. And we’ve seen over and over that humans can’t resist the main temptation that comes with this role: to use their customers’ money for their own purposes.”
Connel Fullenkamp, a professor of the practice of economics, writing in the New York Times about the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
HIGHER EDUCATION
“Promoting innovation in teaching, mentoring and interdisciplinary research through deep engagement with administration and governance allowed me to be a better communicator, a more confident scholar, an active listener, a more effective researcher and educator, and a more constructive university citizen.”
Doctoral student Edgar Virguez, who served on a university committee and as part of an administrative search for a university executive while completing his studies. He wrote this for Higher Ed Dive.
PUBLIC HEALTH
“The long fight to end HIV/AIDS has seen real progress spurred by innovative research, prevention, treatment and education. But our nation’s ambitious goal of ending the HIV epidemic by 2030 is nevertheless in peril. This World AIDS Day, we must be honest with ourselves: We aren’t moving fast enough, and if we don’t make significant changes to how we fight the epidemic, we will fall short.”
Vincent Guilamo-Ramos, dean of Duke’s School of Nursing, writing on CNN about why an initiative to eradicate HIV/AIDS is falling short.
“To hear and understand Black patients requires listening with thoughtful attention. This allows for the building of trust and stronger relationships, which is important for a population with a high historical level of mistrust in the healthcare system. By listening thoughtfully, a health care worker demonstrates respect to the patient. It creates a safe space that empowers patients to share without fear of judgment or neglect.”
Chinemerem Nwosu, a Duke medical student, writing for WRAL about the special care health care professionals should give to pregnant Black women.
“When we interview an ICU nurse, doctor, or other medical professional, we begin by asking: ‘How have things been lately?’ The answers vary, but there are common themes of groundlessness, exhaustion, and invisibility. Workers sometimes, but not always, call it burnout, and use this term in different ways. They may echo public accounts of health care workers describing themselves as charred wood.”
Harris Solomon, a professor of cultural anthropology and global health, writing in Stat News about the impact of the pandemic on health care workers.
CLIMATE CHANGE
“For the IRA and wider U.S. decarbonization efforts to succeed, stakeholders must acknowledge that these efforts will not be defined by a litany of win-wins, but rather will entail wide-ranging and often divisive trade-offs.
“Many Americans want to reduce emissions rapidly to address climate change, enjoy cheap fuel for transportation and home heating in the meantime, wean the U.S. off unsavory foreign sources for this fuel, quickly curtail the influence and production of domestic oil and gas companies, as well as avoid disruptive or unsightly solar, wind and transmission lines in their own neighborhoods. These desires are in tension.”
Jackson Ewing, a senior fellow at the Nicholas Institute of Energy, Environment & Sustainability, writing in The Hill about the difficult tradeoffs necessary to significantly reduce carbon emissions.
VACCINES
“In North Carolina and beyond, COVID-19 is likely to be with us indefinitely. It will periodically produce new variants and associated waves of infections, hospitalizations and deaths. But as more and more people acquire some level of immunity, either through vaccination, infection or both, and especially as more people get recommended booster shots, future waves should be less severe and less likely to spawn new variants so quickly.”
David Montefiori, director of the Laboratory for AIDS and COVID-19 Vaccine Research and Development at Duke University Medical Center, writing in the Raleigh News & Observer about the importance of vaccines.
ABORTION
“Our patients are the experts of their lives, and they deserve the right to make healthcare decisions with the guidance of their health care provider — and without political meddling in this important moment. Providers need the freedom to provide safe reproductive health care, including safe and legal abortion care.”
Beverly Gray, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology, writing in the Charlotte Observer about the role of politics in the abortion debate.
“As bumper stickers go, “Abortion on demand for any reason” is pretty direct, even confrontational. And yet, while a position like this would undoubtedly be represented in the media and in politics as being out on the far end of the spectrum of opinion, there is good evidence that it has the support of half the country.”
Sociologist Kieran Healy, writing in the Washington Post about broad public support for abortion.
WORLD AFFAIRS
“The United States needs to understand that some critically important things have changed in Latin America. China, not the United States, is the largest trading partner for Brazil, Chile, Peru, and others. It also presents an alternative model for economic development for some in the region as well as a vast market. Furthermore, recently elected presidents on the Left like Gabriel Boric in Chile and Pedro Castillo in Peru are seriously questioning the efficacy of the economic formulas the United States has long advocated.”
Patrick Duddy, director of Duke’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, writing in The National Interest about the U.S. role in the Summit of the Americas.
“Imagine it is November next year, and Ukraine has recovered most, but not all, the territories Russia seized in 2014 and this year. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy might fear that Russian President Vladimir Putin thinks the war has been profitable. He might worry that, after signing a peace treaty, Russia would rebuild and attack Ukraine again. Zelenskiy would need international support, but what if the West had grown tired of the matter? For Zelenskiy, the best solution is Ukraine’s admission to NATO.”
Political scientist Joseph Grieco and co-author Giacom Chiozza writing in the Taipei Times about a potential U.S. role in Ukraine/Russia peace talks.
PERSONAL REFLECTION
“When I read Joyce, I hear again something of the lingo of my grandfather’s Dublin crowd. Without even trying, I sense the life force of their languages, as powerful for them as for Joyce. Playing with as many as they can, they work to put their own people and places on-the-map.”
Helen Solterer, a professor of French and Francophone Studies, in a personal essay on Medium about her grandfather, Curran, and his college buddy -- with Irish author James Joyce.