“Over the last 11 years, no one has done more to strengthen Duke’s distinctive culture of cross-disciplinary collaboration than Ed Balleisen,” said Provost Alec D. Gallimore. “Ed’s visionary leadership has helped to advance our academic mission through innovative and expanded support for interdisciplinary research, experiential and project-based learning, and community-engaged scholarship. I am grateful for his creativity, wise counsel, and deep commitment to the university, and I wish him every success as he takes on this exciting new role.”

Balleisen is currently responsible for a range of interdisciplinary programs and initiatives, including Duke’s 11 university-wide institutes, initiatives and center; Duke University Press; the Duke Lemur Center; other academic and research initiatives, including the Center for Computational Thinking, the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity, and the new Duke Center for Community-Engaged Scholarship; and various funding opportunities, such as the Multiyear Interdisciplinary Hubs and Interdisciplinary Graduate Education Collaboratives. 

Balleisen leads Bass Connections, a university-wide academic program that supports collaborative, interdisciplinary research and experiential learning through year-long project teams, intensive summer programs and semester-long courses. More than 1,000 faculty, graduate and professional students and undergraduates work together through Bass Connections each year. The program received Duke’s Presidential Award in 2024.

Balleisen has also championed new programs, including the Master of Interdisciplinary Data Sciences degree program, the Project Management Core, and Duke’s Summer+ programs. In addition, he has convened major faculty reviews of Duke’s interdisciplinary units, which have guided reconfigurations, such as the merger of the Nicholas Institute and Energy Initiative into the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability. Times Higher Education has ranked Duke in the top six for interdisciplinary science among universities worldwide for the last two years.

A professor of history and public policy, Balleisen joined the Duke faculty in 1997. His research explores the historical intersections among law, business, politics and policy in the modern United States, with a growing focus on the origins, evolution and impacts of the modern regulatory state. His most recent book, “Fraud: An American History from Barnum to Madoff” (Princeton University Press, 2017), received the Business History Conference’s 2018 Ralph Gomory Prize.

A national leader in conversations about the need to reconfigure doctoral training to foster intellectual versatility and career diversity, Balleisen was the lead co-principal investigator on Duke’s Versatile Humanists project, funded by a Next Generation Implementation grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Balleisen earned his B.A. in Public and International Affairs from Princeton University and a M.Phil. and Ph.D. in American History from Yale University. In 2015, he received both the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring and the Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award, his second undergraduate teaching award at Duke.

Provost Gallimore will charge a committee with conducting an internal search for Balleisen’s successor later this month.