Bass Connections student team members contributed to a recently published volume of energy access case studies drawn from their fieldwork in communities across the developing world.

Published by Duke’s student-run Global Energy Access Network (GLEAN), the volume strives to illuminate energy access challenges and potential solutions within specific community contexts.

Emily Rains

Paying for Power: The Political Economy of Energy Insolvency in Bihar, India

A doctoral student in public policy, Emily Rains was a member of the Bass Connections Studying the Real “Slums” in Bangalore, Patna and Jaipur team, which researched tenure security and social mobility in India. Rains extended her work in India to consider energy poverty and government capacity in Bihar and continues to pursue this area of research for her dissertation. She is a member of the Bass Connections Student Advisory Council.

Erin Litzow, Lydia Greene, Laura Guidera, Thomas Klug

Cooking Practices, Human Health, and the Environment: The Case of Mandena, Madagascar

These four students were part of the Bass Connections Cookstoves and Air Pollution in Madagascar: Finding Winning Solutions for Human Health and Biodiversity team, which investigated the consequences of traditional cooking practices. Erin Litzow is a 2017 Master of Environmental Management graduate; Lydia Greene is a Ph.D. candidate in Ecology; Laura Guidera (‘18) is a Biology major; and Thomas Klug (’18) is double-majoring in Public Policy and Environmental Sciences. In the summer of 2017, Klug extended his Bass Connections research on the impacts of traditional biomass cooking in Madagascar through a DukeEngage independent project.

Two of the volume’s case studies draw on fieldwork opportunities that grew out of a Bass Connections project team, Exploration and Design of Student-led International Rural Electricity Access Projects:

Aashna Aggarwal, Katherine Guo, Danielle Holt

WindAid in Playa Blanca, Peru

Through a DukeEngage independent project, undergraduates Aashna Aggarwal (’19), Katherine Guo (’19) and Danielle Holt (’19) partnered with WindAid, a nonprofit based in Turjillo, to help build and assess the impact of wind turbines in Playa Blanca, a small Peruvian fishing village.

Tyler Wakefield

Electrifying Rural Indonesia: One NGO’s Approach to Community Empowerment

Tyler Wakefield (’17) traveled to Jakarta, Bandung and Kamanggih through a DukeEngage independent project. Partnering with IBEKA, an Indonesian NGO that empowers communities through renewable electricity, Wakefield helped complete an assessment of a rural electrification project and develop impact measurement tools.

Learn More

• Learn more about 2018-19 teams at the Bass Connections Info Session on February 9 and apply by February 16.
• Interested in energy and the environment? Consider applying to be on one of these 2018-19 Bass Connections project teams.
• View other publications resulting from project teams.