Duke’s Common Experience program welcomes the Duke community, students, staff, and faculty to engage in intellectual dialogue around a singular title. As a welcoming gift, all incoming Duke first-year students in Pratt and Trinity will receive the selected book this summer before they arrive on campus. Throughout the year, the common experience book will be included in panels, lectures, and discussions.
For more information, contact the Common Experience coordination team at fsengagement@duke.edu.
2025: James by Percival Everett
2024: All We Can Save edited by Ayanna Elizabeth Johnson, Katharine K. Wilkinson
2023: The Measure by Nikki Erlick
2022: Point of Reckoning by Theodore Segal
2021: Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
2020: Know My Name by Chanel Miller
2019: There There by Tommy Orange
2018: Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
2017: The Prince of Los Cocuyos by Richard Blanco
2016: Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
2015: Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
2014: Americanah by Chimamanda Adichie
2013: Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
2012: State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
2011: Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran
2010: Everything Matters by Ron Currie, Jr.
2009: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
2008: What is the What by Dave Eggers
2007: The Best of Enemies by Osha Gray Davidson
2006: My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
2005: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
2004: Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder
2003: Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozol
2002: The Palace Thief by Ethan Canin