Undergraduate Courses

Amy Wyron Robinson

This course is a deep dive into the essential skills and perspectives need to bring a new idea to life. The course explores the link between sociology, psychology, anthropology, and economics and the individual (and team) capacity to generate new ideas for a creative problem-solving. The course cultivates crucial competencies like curiosity, questioning, and creativity, aimed at empowering students to tackle problems with renewed, inquisitive approach. 

Cara Tsitouris

In this project-based course, students explore how curiosity and creativity drive effective brand storytelling. They learn to craft strategic, audience-focused messages and build brand identity across a variety of media genres. Working in teams to develop fictional companies, students gain experience with media writing and content creation. They reflect on how personal and organizational missions and values inform communication style. Students work through brand crisis scenarios, building media response skills and considering the ethics of shaping public perception. The course culminates in a visual press kit and strategic plan that showcase students' ability to communicate with purpose and bring innovative ideas to brand messaging. 

Greg Victory 110.01 
Mathavi Strasburger 110.02 
 
Design Your Duke Journey (+Career!) is an interactive course that applies a design-thinking framework and mindset to career exploration and development. Students will learn to get curious, try stuff out and talk to people through experiential activities in and out of the classroom, self-reflection, readings and discussion. The intended goal is that students will learn how design thinking can help them explore options and opportunities, and at the same time, wrestle with the “wicked” problem of: How do I know if I’m on the right track, if I don’t know exactly what the destination is? This class is best suited for first-year or sophomore undergraduate students. 

Thomas Brothers

     
This course addresses collaboration in visual arts, literature and especially music, with focus on the Beatles and Duke Ellington. We also look at Picasso and Braque, Dutch workshops in the seventeenth century, Hip Hop, architectural studios, Charles Dickens, T.S. Eliot, Warhol, and movies. Along the way we'll learn about jazz and rock during the period 1920 through 1970. The ethics of collaboration plays out very differently in these two ensembles. The musicians helping Ellington were largely hidden: the goal was to establish the image of him as a genius composer who did it all by himself. The Beatles, in contrast, carefully cultivated the image of an egalitarian musical collective; they were so successful that this ideal came to dominate rock during the 1960s. 

Andrew Nurkin 

This community-engaged course provides an introduction to contemporary issues in US arts policy and cultural sector leadership across four broad themes: creative institutions; cultural equity and accessibility; creative placemaking/community development; and the creative economy. In addition to policy questions in these areas, we examine leadership practices in arts organizations and cultural institutions, with particular attention to the kinds of leadership the arts require in a post-2020 world. Students will work in teams on a semester-long collaborative project with an arts policy organization and experience the arts in practice through attendance at performances and exhibitions. 

Johanna (Jody) McAuliffe 

We will explore techniques for spontaneous behavior, immediate creation, and developing your creativity and truth on stage. The goal of the class exercises will be to build community and collaboration, to deepen your communication skills, and to strengthen your natural sense of humor. We will study the works of Viola Spolin, Keith Johnstone, and iO. 

Aaron Dinin

Marketing and publicity are so important to audience building that, 20 years ago, expanding beyond local audiences usually couldn't be accomplished without huge advertising budgets. However, thanks to the Internet, you can build a global audience from your dorm room. This class explores how. Learn about social media, search engine optimization, virality, content marketing, growth hacking, and other digital audience building strategies. They're difficult to learn and time consuming to execute, so expect to struggle. We'll learn as much from our failures as we will from our successes as we discover what it takes to cultivate global awareness for an idea without ever leaving Durham. 

Aaron Dinin 
 
Typical Duke students spend hours each day using social media. You’ve surely heard the platforms described as “revolutionary,” and you’ve also heard them described as “time wasters.” What you probably haven’t thought about is how similar they are to previous “revolutionary” communications technologies like novels, newspapers, and even language itself. This course explores ways in which studying the masters of previous “social” media technologies—the Shakespeares, Whitmans, and Eliots of the world—can help us understand how influencers on digital social media leverage the same platforms you use every day to market themselves, build their brands, and grow their audiences. 

Alexandra Zagbayou

Explore the long history of women's activism in the United States, and how that history has shaped current debates about women leaders. Explore the variety of ways that women exercise leadership not just in party politics and corporations, but in neighborhoods, schools, and unions among other places. Learn about theories of leadership and connect theory to practice through the process of articulating your own theory of change for your leadership journey. All are welcomed. 

Anna Wilson
 
When creating transformative technology based products and services the essential component to its success and positive impact on society is the central role of humans. This course explores this intersection of the humanities and technology. On the development side products are created in interdisciplinary teams through leadership, communication, process building, trust, experimentation, critical thinking, and problem solving. On the user experience side new innovations are successful when they are designed for and with humans in mind. Product managers must understand diverse cultures and customers. Concepts covered include needs finding, ethical product development, problem identification, market opportunity analysis, strategy, road mapping, product development, competitive analysis, branding, and life cycle management. Learning takes place using a mix of individual and team-based assignments, presentations, simulations and projects.  

Aaron Dinin 
 
We've all heard "there are no dumb questions," but most of us still avoid asking the ones that might make us look foolish. In this course, we turn that fear into a strength. Through fast-paced, collaborative exercises, students learn how seemingly obvious, naive, or absurd questions can break assumptions, spark creativity, and uncover possibilities others miss. Along the way, we'll explore questioning frameworks used by innovators, entrepreneurs, and problem-solvers across disciplines, applying them to both playful and high-stakes scenarios. By the end of the semester, students won't jsut be more comfortable asking questions--they'll know how to use them as powerful tools for thinking, learning, leading. 

Shep Moyle 

Entrepreneurial You is a bold, immersive journey into personal innovation and purposeful life design. Blending tools from entrepreneurship, design thinking, psychology, and the liberal arts, this course challenges students to create a meaningful vision for their lives through hands-on exploration, thoughtful reflection, and action-based learning. Through dynamic class sessions, guest experiences with leaders in luxury, retail, innovation, and social impact, and a unique partnership with Duke alumni mentors, students will confront fundamental questions: Who am I? What do I value? What kind of life do I want to build? 

Students will engage with provocative readings, venture creation exercises, HBS simulations, and rich conversations around happiness, impact, identity, and legacy. By mid-semester, they'll pitch a venture concept designed to reflect their personal values and creativity. By semester's end, they'll launch a podcast with their alumni partner and present a deeply reflective and actionable life plan. 

This course is for dreamers, doers, and designers of the self. 

Brad Brinegar 
 
Before Dollar Shave Club, we went to Target to save on Gillette. We still buy traditional brands at traditional stores. But a host of these disruptors are cutting out the middleman while redefining brick-and-mortar retail. Amazon now gets us whatever we want, whenever and wherever we want it. Dollar Shave Club quickly amassed 3 million subscribers. These “direct-to-consumer” brands control every customer interaction. These brands become as much about that experience as about the product itself. This requires customer empathy. Armed with these insights, we can create brands that reframe peoples’ category expectations and, in best cases, enhance their lives. 

Shep Moyle 
 
Course covers component elements of developing skills needed to launch a venture. Starting at the point of need identification, course covers lean methodology; innovation and entrepreneurship strategy; creating needed financing and resource structures; effectively marketing/communicating innovation and its associated benefits; leading, managing, and working effectively within teams; creating a positive and ethical work culture; and evaluating success. Materials for class discussion are case studies and readings. Course is only open to Innovation & Entrepreneurship Certificate students. 

Andrea Inokon
Charles Inokon 

This course covers key topics for venture investors and startup founders working with venture capital. Students will gain a solid understanding of the structure of venture capital funds, the role of risk versus return, and capital staging. The course also addresses the impact of dilution, expected returns, and important considerations around control and ownership. Additionally, students will explore essential terms that influence control, while developing a clear understanding of how business strategy aligns with financing decisions. This prepares students to navigate venture capital from both investor and founder perspectives. 

Jamie Jones
Max Stern 

Do you want to design a business model around either your own idea or someone else's problem? In New Ventures Develop you'll learn to assess opportunities, develop and test business models, understand your financials, and build successful teams. If you've validated an idea through New Ventures Discover or through your independent customer discovery process, New Ventures Develop can facilitate idea to action. In this course, student teams will develop core elements of a strategy for a technology or business idea; detail will be suitable for a business plan document for a company seeking initial investment; strategy will serve as a foundation for a first operating plan for company.

Learn more about this course and the application/matching process here: https://fuquacei.notion.site/

Jonathon Cummings 
 
In this course, students bring together interdisciplinary insights from their work throughout the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Certificate program to shed light on innovation and entrepreneurship and the roles they play in addressing the world's most pressing problems. The class will incorporate rich discussion, selected readings, and guest speakers addressing topics in innovation and entrepreneurship. Students will focus on applying what they have learned through the certificate curriculum to develop an innovation and entrepreneurship capstone project. Director of undergraduate studies consent required. 

Judith Ledlee 

Over the two-semester Design Climate sequence, student teams use design thinking to develop triple bottom line startups that address climate challenges posed by industry professionals or faculty. In Design Climate II, student teams develop their business ideas by prototyping, gathering market validation data, and developing their business model. The semester culminates in a pitch of the startup ideas to members of the entrepreneurship community. Students cultivate capabilities in design thinking, entrepreneurship, project management, sustainable product development, climate fundamentals & business competencies. Includes local field trips. 

Ryan Bolick

This course is designed to equip aspiring entrepreneurs with the knowledge and skills needed to create, launch, and scale AI-driven startups. The curriculum provides a comprehensive understanding of the AI value chain, explores successful business models, and dives into the logistics of building a team and product in the AI space. Students will gain insights into differentiating their startups for sustainable competitive advantage and navigating the complex ethical, regulatory, and legal landscape of working with AI models. The class will include significant hand-on team project work where students will develop and refine AI startup ideas, applying the concepts learned throughout the course. Through practical case studies and interactive discussions, students will learn to identify market opportunities for the application of AI, develop differentiated AI-based products that address fairness, legal and ethical concerns, and build new ventures around bringing AI products to market. 

Learn more about this course on the course page. 

Steve McClelland
Tommy Sowers

This applied course immerses students in the rapid design and prototyping of AI-enabled technologies addressing real-world challenges in defense, security, and resilience. Teams work with government and industry partners to define mission-critical problems, build prototype systems, and iterate based on stakeholder feedback. Emphasis is placed on rapid experimentation, human-centered design, and operational value delivery in complex environments. Open to: Graduate and advanced undergraduate students. Prerequisites: Coursework or experience in AI, data science, systems engineering, or design innovation recommended.

Doug Kaufman

This course is a deep dive into the essential skills and perspectives need to bring a new idea to life. The course explores the link between sociology, psychology, anthropology, and economics and the individual (and team) capacity to generate new ideas for a creative problem-solving. The course cultivates crucial competencies like curiosity, questioning, and creativity, aimed at empowering students to tackle problems with renewed, inquisitive approach.

Greg Victory 110.01
Mathavi Strasburger 110.02

Design Your Duke Journey (+Career!) is an interactive course that applies a design-thinking framework and mindset to career exploration and development. Students will learn to get curious, try stuff out and talk to people through experiential activities in and out of the classroom, self-reflection, readings and discussion. The intended goal is that students will learn how design thinking can help them explore options and opportunities, and at the same time, wrestle with the “wicked” problem of: How do I know if I’m on the right track, if I don’t know exactly what the destination is? This class is best suited for first-year or sophomore undergraduate students.

Jody McAuliffe

We will explore techniques for spontaneous behavior, immediate creation, and developing your creativity and truth on stage. The goal of the class exercises will be to build community and collaboration, to deepen your communication skills, and to strengthen your natural sense of humor. We will study the works of Viola Spolin, Keith Johnstone, and iO.

Aaron Dinin

Most people spend their lives afraid of failing. Yet, many of the world’s most successful people failed numerous times on their paths toward success. The underlying question of this class is if failing is as antithetical to learning as we’re taught to believe. To explore this question, we will test ways of using failure as a strategy for learning. We will experiment with failure to learn how it can make us better as we develop our skills as innovators, specifically focusing on the earliest stage of creativity: ideation. We will use failure through experimentation as a technique for problem definition and needs discovery which, in turn, will help us validate the quality of our ideas.

Aaron Dinin

Typical Duke students spend hours each day using social media. You’ve surely heard the platforms described as “revolutionary,” and you’ve also heard them described as “time wasters.” What you probably haven’t thought about is how similar they are to previous “revolutionary” communications technologies like novels, newspapers, and even language itself. This course explores ways in which studying the masters of previous “social” media technologies—the Shakespeares, Whitmans, and Eliots of the world—can help us understand how influencers on digital social media leverage the same platforms you use every day to market themselves, build their brands, and grow their audiences.

John Supko

Experiential, project-based course focusing on writing electronic music for TV and film. Students will score multiple scenes from movies and TV shows. They will learn entire composition/production process: sketching initial ideas from images; creating workflow in the DAW, using MIDI and FX to enhance dramatic/emotional components scenes; mixing complete audio tracks; delivering final stems to dub stage for dialogue and foley. Students will finish course with portfolio of work useful to apply for professional opportunities in commercial film industry. Course will also include career-building guidance for aspiring film composers. Instructors are Duke faculty composer John Supko and Emmy-nominated freelance film composer Karam Salem. Suitable for beginners as well as more advanced students.

Jed Simmons

The class will jump into the middle of the change and innovation happening at the intersection of Media, Entertainment and Technology. We will look at how we make, distribute and consume Media and Entertainment. We will focus on entrepreneurs and innovative companies and creators revolutionizing Media and Entertainment, as well as thought leaders and leading companies in the space. The class will feature Cases, articles, speakers, in class discussion along with a term long project.

Amy S Peters
Anna Wilson
Rachel Settle

When creating transformative technology based products and services the essential component to its success and positive impact on society is the central role of humans. This course explores this intersection of the humanities and technology. On the development side products are created in interdisciplinary teams through leadership, communication, process building, trust, experimentation, critical thinking, and problem solving. On the user experience side new innovations are successful when they are designed for and with humans in mind. Product managers must understand diverse cultures and customers. Concepts covered include needs finding, ethical product development, problem identification, market opportunity analysis, strategy, road mapping, product development, competitive analysis, branding, and life cycle management. Learning takes place using a mix of individual and team-based assignments, presentations, simulations and projects.

Sima Sistani

A transformative class designed to empower women to drive meaningful change through taking entrepreneurial action in their personal and professional lives. The program integrates self-reflection, skill-building, and leadership training to help students unlock their potential and thrive while creating a positive impact in their communities and organizations. Through interactive workshops and guided discussions, students will cultivate confidence, develop strategic decision-making skills, and learn how to identify opportunities for innovation and action.

Students will also explore how to navigate challenges and influence change. By the end of the course, students will leave not only with the tools and mindset needed to lead authentically and effectively but also with actionable strategies to take initiative, communicate effectively, and champion solutions that matter. This class is open to all students.

Aaron Dinin

Student teams work on specific arts-based entrepreneurial projects. Teams comprised of students from different backgrounds (arts, engineering, economics, computer science). Goals include creating business plan and launching ventures in areas of the arts. Structure an adaptation of Fuqua Program for Entrepreneurs. Ideal projects have real/positive impact on society. Students learn to situate artistic creativity within projects that meet societal need. Students from any background welcome to apply for enrollment. Must have interest in arts or working with artists in entrepreneurial context. Admission by permission of instructors.

Danielle Zapotoczny

Innovating for Social Impact will explore the ever-evolving intersection between the public sector, private sector, and non-profit organizations in delivering needed services around the world. With a global “to do list” in place via the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), world leaders are calling upon the private sector, NGOs and individuals to play an active role alongside governments in finding and implementing solutions. These partnerships are such a priority that “Partnership for the Goals” is specifically called out as one of the SDGs.

Focusing on “social impact” partnerships, this course will look at innovative ways that the individuals, influencers and the private sector are creating change along with the reasons driving their desire to do so. From a soda company delivering vaccines through their distribution channels and local restaurants being tapped to serve as the hot lunchroom for public schools to product lines like RED being created with the sole purpose of funding AIDS interventions and businesses like TOMS and Warby Parker embedding purpose as part of their company DNA, social problems and public needs are being tackled in innovative ways with collaboration across the public, private and non-profit sectors.

Brands and influencers are also leveraging their platforms with the specific intent of raising public engagement in important issues. These innovative marketing and communications strategies play an interesting and evolving role in shaping social action, and sometimes policy, as they drive mass audiences to take action via advocacy or with companies either via dollars they spend or by shaping the workplace from the inside out.

As the lines continue to blur on who does what and how, it is an important time to look at how collaboration across sectors can lead to real progress. By studying the various ways that these sectors are leveraging their talents, time and treasure to have an impact on social good, students will see there is no one way to be a change-maker. As many students will exercise professional and/or volunteer leadership in public-private sector issues during their careers, the enhanced knowledge, personal insight, and evaluation skills learned in this course should support them as they leave Duke and look to help solve the world’s most pressing problems, no matter what career path they choose.

Katya Wesolowski

Anthropology as a discipline (a field of study) and the site where anthropologists work: the field. Combines theories of anthropological fieldwork methods with practice, including participation, observation, and interviews. Students undertake original research in a local field site of their choice and produce their own mini-ethnography. This requirement may also be satisfied by taking Cultural Anthropology 290A Duke in Ghana Anthropological Field Research.

Brad Brinegar

Before Dollar Shave Club, we went to Target to save on Gillette. We still buy traditional brands at traditional stores. But a host of these disruptors are cutting out the middleman while redefining brick-and-mortar retail. Amazon now gets us whatever we want, whenever and wherever we want it. Dollar Shave Club quickly amassed 3 million subscribers. These “direct-to-consumer” brands control every customer interaction. These brands become as much about that experience as about the product itself. This requires customer empathy. Armed with these insights, we can create brands that reframe peoples’ category expectations and, in best cases, enhance their lives.

Shep Moyle

Course covers component elements of developing skills needed to launch a venture. Starting at the point of need identification, course covers lean methodology; innovation and entrepreneurship strategy; creating needed financing and resource structures; effectively marketing/communicating innovation and its associated benefits; leading, managing, and working effectively within teams; creating a positive and ethical work culture; and evaluating success. Materials for class discussion are case studies and readings. Course is only open to Innovation & Entrepreneurship Certificate students.

Jon Fjeld

This seminar offers juniors and seniors the opportunity to engage in research in the foundational concepts of entrepreneurship. The research will explore and test the hypothesis that there are three foundational concepts: value, empathy, and uncertainty.

The role of these concepts is expressed in three assertions:
1.    The purpose of entrepreneurship is the creation of value. This statement exploits multiple meanings of “value.”
2.    The first principle, the starting point, of entrepreneurship is empathy—deep understanding of the intended beneficiaries (“customers”).
3.    The essence (or logic) of entrepreneurial action is the discipline of managing uncertainty: identifying assumptions, testing, seeking evidence.

In this seminar, students will explore diverse literatures and have an opportunity to do original research into these ideas. Students will be asked to investigate one or more dimensions of the basic hypothesis and to take a position for or against one of the assertions in the outline. They will study the subject and develop an argument for their position from the perspective of and using the methodology of one of these disciplines.
•    Philosophical argument rooted in value theory or decision-making under uncertainty,
•    Empirical moral psychology,
•    Theoretical or empirical economic analysis,
•    Ethnographic analysis in the style of cultural anthropology,
•    Economic history.

Shep Moyle

Did your idea pass muster in New Ventures Develop? Do you have early revenue or evidence of product market fit and want to continue to refine your go to market strategy? New Ventures Deliver is the ideal course for serious entrepreneurs ready to push themselves to take the leap. In this course you will continue to test core hypothesis while you develop a milestone driven plan for go-to-market, sales, staffing, and fundraising.

Ashish Arora

In this course, students bring together interdisciplinary insights from their work throughout the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Certificate program to shed light on innovation and entrepreneurship and the roles they play in addressing the world's most pressing problems. The class will incorporate rich discussion, selected readings, and guest speakers addressing topics in innovation and entrepreneurship. Students will focus on applying what they have learned through the certificate curriculum to develop an innovation and entrepreneurship capstone project. Director of undergraduate studies consent required.

Anna Wilson

The students who are enrolled in the course only receive course credit for completion, they do not receive any compensation. There is a co-curricular component to the course where we engage students who are NOT enrolled the course and have specific technical skills to work with the enrolled students to complete technical projects. They are the ones who are paid the stipend. The two groups of students - course enrolled & co-curricular - work together but are separate groups with separate incentive/reward structures (course credit for the former, cash stipend for the latter). Prerequisite: I&E 283 Product Management

Kathleen Horvath
Judith Ledlee

Over the two-semester Design Climate course sequence, student teams use Design Thinking to create triple bottom line startups to address climate challenges posed by industry professionals or faculty. In Design Climate I (fall), student teams develop business ideas by working through the first three phases of Design Thinking: stakeholder empathizing, opportunity definition, and solution ideation. The semester culminates with a pitch on the startup idea that will be further vetted in Design Climate II (spring). Through this process, students learn directly from industry professionals and cultivate capabilities in Design Thinking, entrepreneurship, project management, sustainable product development, climate fundamentals, and business competencies. For more information, visit our website at designclimate.duke.edu. We highly encourage students to only register if you plan on taking both Design Climate I and II.