Dr. Susannah Hall Duerr graduated this past Mother’s Day weekend with her PhD in Religious Studies and the Certificate in College Teaching from Duke University. She earned the Master of Arts in Religious Studies at Duke in 2016.
During her time as a master’s student, she organized a master’s conference. Once she began the doctoral degree, she initiated a mentorship program, pairing one master’s student with one doctoral student as a means of professional development for both parties.
Duerr was awarded several different fellowships that facilitated her study in Japan while a doctoral student. She received the Nippon Foundation Fellowship in 2018, the Japan Family Fellowship in 2021 and the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Dissertation Fellowship in Buddhist Studies in 2022. Other grants and fellowship during her time in the program included Duke’s Summer Research Fellowship, (2017-2018), Gurney Harris Kearns Summer Research Fellowship (2020), and Duke’s Asian/Pacific Studies Institute Summer Research Grant (2021).
Fluent in Japanese, Duerr has presented papers both in this country and in Japan, both in English and Japanese. She also reads classical Japanese and French.
Duerr has had pedagogical training at Duke University and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill that qualified her to receive the certificate in teaching. She has also been a teaching assistant several times as well as an instructor of record, giving her valuable classroom experience.
We will follow her career with interest.