Playing professional basketball in El Salvador, interning with the U.S. Senate, teaching at a German university and playing basketball in Germany seem like very diverse activities. For new associate professor of history Dr. J.R. Duke however, these are his reality.
In 1999, after graduating from Harding in 1998, Duke moved to El Salvador after hearing about an opportunity to play basketball there. Duke said he was thrilled about the new opportunity.
“I was never really anxious about it,” Duke said. “I was excited to get the chance to go. I enjoyed the chance to go meet people, try foods, try sports and try to find church homes in different places, and try to make friends.”
After Duke moved to El Salvador, he started playing basketball in the top division with a professional league. By the end of the season, Duke, along with his El Salvadorian and Honduran teammates, won the national championship. Duke said winning the championship title will always be a highlight for him from 1999.
“There was this huge celebration,” Duke said. “It was their first time to ever win a championship. That was a lot of fun.”
Duke’s basketball career did not end in El Salvador. In 2000, Duke moved to Oxford, Miss., where he attended the University of Mississippi. He not only continued his studies while there, but he also helped coach the basketball team.
Duke was given the opportunity to fly all over the country for basketball while obtaining his master’s and doctoral degrees at the same time. He soon moved from helping an American college basketball team to playing with a German basketball team.
Duke taught at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, for seven years. While teaching in Germany, he said he experienced cultural differences.
“There’s definitely different teaching styles in different countries,” Duke said. “We’d meet once a week for two hours in Germany. So you prepare for this two hour experience, and you do all kinds of stuff in that period, then you don’t meet for a week.”
Duke said the different ways of teaching in other countries has affected him and his teaching style. One of his current students, junior Cana Moore, said she believes it has positively affected his style.
“His work in Germany definitely affected his teaching, but it was a good thing,” Moore said. “He has some great stories to tell about his time, and makes really good comparisons regarding the two cultures.”
Besides differences in the classroom, there were also cultural variations in how sports are played there, according to Duke.
Duke started playing German basketball in his neighborhood with a small club. Then, after some time, he joined a bigger club with a slightly bigger reputation. He ended up playing in the fourth highest league in Germany, their semi-professional league. He also played basketball with the university’s team. They finished third in the nation twice and once took second place.
By having the opportunity to play sports in various cultures, Duke said that watching sports be played in different countries has changed the way he looks at athletic events here at home.
“(Sports are) an expression of who we are culturally, just like we think about art or music,” Duke said.
Though Duke is back at Harding and said he thoroughly enjoys it here, he said he does not know what the future has in store. He said he does know, however, that he wants to continue his involvement in academics and in sports wherever he goes.
