Born in Missouri, raised in Arkansas, schooled in theater (MFA) and performance studies (MA and Ph.D.) in Texas and North Carolina, Jules has been active in the Triangle theater-making scene for over 25 years. She joined Duke’s Thompson Writing Program as a post-doc in 2005. From there, she served as Theater Studies’ resident dramaturg. In 2014, she became the first Director of Academic Engagement for the Arts & Humanities within the Academic Advising Center. In that role, she advised students; co-directed the Story+ summer research program; taught in FOCUS; and provided a range of support for arts & humanities curricular programs, DEMAN (Duke’s Entertainment, Media, Arts Network), and health humanities and disability studies working groups/conferences. Jules was an Artistic Associate with Durham’s storied Manbites Dog Theater from 2014 until its closure in 2018. She is a co-founder of Bulldog Ensemble Theater and Theater Book Club, the latter being a collaboration with Duke alum and creator of the Artist Soapbox podcast, Tamara Kissane (T ’94). Jules joined Duke Arts in May 2024.
We are excited to share that Jules Odendahl-James, formerly the Director of Academic Engagement for the Arts & Humanities at Duke, has joined the Duke Arts team as Director of Engagement!
jao@duke.edu