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Established in 2024, the Duke Kunshan University Archives and serve as the collecting program and repository for the university’s history and community experience.
The DKU Archives documents the intellectual, cultural and administrative history. We work with our community to identify materials of lasting historical value, and as much as possible we preserve these in their original formats both physical and digital.
Our mission is to build collections that accurately reflect the history and development of Duke Kunshan University. Our primary subjects include
Administrative history
Academic and research activities
Student life and campus culture
To this end, we actively collect materials from university leadership and administration, academic programs, students, faculty and affiliates, and alumni. To augment and complement these materials, we record and collect oral history interviews capturing the lived experiences of our community.
The goal for the University Archives is that our holdings are used for scholarly, administrative, and educational purposes by a wide range of audiences who study our unique institution. To further this research, we actively seek to grow our existing holdings to accurately document life at DKU and reflect the diverse experiences and contributions of students, faculty, staff, and affiliates.
We support the educational and research mission of the university by facilitating engagement with primary sources through classroom instruction, exhibitions, university communications, and other venues. Our primary audience is our university community but we also support members of the public who wish to engage with the history of DKU.
Everyone is welcome to visit the University Archives, including classes interested in primary source materials. The Reading Room (LIB 3012) is open without appointment on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 am to 3 pm. If you would like to visit at other times, please contact Ryder Kouba (rydersewell.kouba@dukekunshan.edu.cn), Archives and Special Collections Librarian, and that can be arranged.
How will future generations and researchers understand what campus life was like? This collecting area attempts the answer to that question through collaboratively archiving student and campus activities and organizations, alumni engagements, university-wide events, to name a few. Materials include posters, photographs, event and organization documentation (such as constitutions, programs, and meeting minutes), and publications.
The Duke Kunshan University Oral History program records the memories and perspectives of community members; the interviews do not just inform listeners about what happened, they tell the story of how the events were experienced. Additionally, oral histories often preserve aspects of intangible campus culture that may not be documented elsewhere. In 2024 the Library launched an Oral History Project to document DKU’s founding and early days, through interviews with administrators and faculty from that time.
We are also happy to support projects by faculty, students, or staff here at DKU through training and/or providing a repository for their work. If you would like to learn more about our Oral History Program please contact Mengjie Zou or Ryder Kouba.
We preserve materials in a wide variety of formats, including physical and born-digital materials.
