It’s Not Too Late to Join a 2022-2023 Bass Connections Project Team

June 1, 2022

All current Duke undergraduate students and incoming and current Duke graduate students are invited to apply by June 15 at 5:00 p.m.

Apply now.

Interested in joining a 2022-2023 project team?

Fourteen project teams, including three new teams pursuing research related to democracy and governance, are now recruiting student team members to begin work in Fall 2022. Students may apply to up to two project teams using our online application. The deadline to apply is June 15 at 5:00 p.m.

Bass Connections project teams bring together faculty, postdocs, graduate students, undergraduates and external partners to tackle complex societal challenges in interdisciplinary research teams. Teams generally work together over nine to 12 months, and students receive academic credit for participating.

Please note that spots on most of these teams are limited as the majority of positions were filled during the main application cycle last spring. Students interested in applying for a Bass Connections project team during the main application cycle will be able to explore 2023-2024 project teams in January 2023.

Eligibility

All current Duke undergraduate students and incoming and current Duke graduate students are eligible to apply.

Please note that incoming first-year undergraduate students and DKU students who do not plan to be at Duke for at least one semester during the 2022-2023 academic year are not eligible to apply. Students who have already accepted a spot on a 2022-2023 Bass Connections team are also not eligible to apply.

Check out Student FAQs to learn more about eligibility and preview the online application.

Project Teams Recruiting Students

Please visit the project team pages linked below and read the project descriptions carefully to learn about the unique opportunities available on each team. Many teams are seeking students with specific backgrounds or skills. Several teams are seeking paid graduate student project managers.

Project teams offer course credit and last for two semesters. Applicants should plan to participate for both semesters. Check out How Project Teams Work and Student FAQs to learn more.

Democracy “Pop-Up” Teams 

Measuring Democracy in America (New team)
  • All current Duke undergraduate students and current and incoming graduate students may apply
  • Project manager opportunity available – applicants interested in this position specifically should apply here in lieu of the Bass Connections application 
  • Preference for applicants with backgrounds or interests in public policy, political science, law, statistics or data science

Free and fair elections are the fundamental building block of democracy. In the U.S.’s federal system, the fifty states have widely different procedures for managing all aspects of the voting system. This project team will determine if a scorecard evaluation of state election systems or other key aspects of American democracy can make a positive contribution to the debate over democracy protection.

Politics and Polarization in Mainline Protestant Congregations (New team)
  • All current Duke undergraduate students and current and incoming graduate students may apply
  • Preference for applicants with backgrounds or interests in sociology, political science, anthropology, statistics, religious studies, philosophy or public policy

It has been argued that churches can “bridge” social and political divides because they bring diverse individuals together in the context of shared identity, beliefs and interests. This project team will explore the social, political and health impacts of political polarization in Mainline clergy and congregations with the ultimate aim of developing recommendations to clergy for how to facilitate civil discourse and bridge political difference.

Social Provision of Information for Effective Democratic Citizens (New team)
  • All current Duke undergraduate students and current and incoming graduate students may apply
  • Project manager opportunities available
  • Preference for applicants with interests in political science, sociology, journalism, psychology, community engagement or education, and applicants with qualitative and quantitative skills, including experience with qualitative data analysis software packages (e.g., NVivo)

The path to being an informed citizen has become increasingly complicated due to technological changes that have made it easier for disinformation to flourish. This project team will examine remedies to the growing information gap by exploring three interrelated interventions: information subsidies, media/digital literacy and a community information needs assessment.

Additional Project Teams Recruiting Students

Trauma-Informed Courts: A Public Health Approach to Juvenile Justice (New team)
  • All current Duke undergraduate students and current and incoming graduate students may apply
  • Preference for applicants with backgrounds or interests in sociology, anthropology, statistics, psychology, neuroscience, public policy or medical sciences

Despite efforts to implement trauma-informed practices in the judicial context, little research has investigated their impact. This project team will work with the Bolch Judicial Institute at Duke Law to build a strong foundation of scientific research on trauma-informed care within the judicial system by investigating the real-world impacts of trauma-informed courtroom-based practices. 

Celebrating Latinx Culture with a Spanish Reading Program
  • Graduate student project manager opportunity available

Latinx children growing up in the U.S. often struggle with defining their own identity while navigating values and expectations of two different cultures. Through the ¡Celebra Latinx! program, this project team will pair undergraduate students as “peer tutors” to Latinx children, creating spaces of belonging where speaking and reading together in Spanish builds community. 

Earthquake Early Warning in Kathmandu
  • Doctoral and master’s/professional students only
  • Preference for applicants with hardware development experience

Kathmandu, Nepal faces a high risk of earthquakes. Earthquake early warning is the only way to save human lives and prevent devastation of Kathmandu communities. In partnership with Tribhuvan University of Kathmandu, this project team will advance an interdisciplinary approach to develop an earthquake early warning system in the Kathmandu Valley. 

Equitable University-Community Research Partnerships
  • Doctoral and master’s/professional students only
  • Project manager opportunity available

Collaborative research partnerships between institutions of higher education and local communities offer a valuable form of scholarship and a transformative approach to teaching and learning. Building on the work of prior teams, this team will develop best practices to improve community engaged research, with a focus on research partnerships between Duke and the Durham community. 

Gamifying Risk Identification for Alcohol Use Behaviors Across Countries and Cultures
  • All current Duke undergraduate students and current and incoming graduate students may apply
  • Preference for applicants with backgrounds in computational fields, behavioral neuroscience or global health 

Alcohol use is the seventh global risk factor for premature mortality and life-long disability. This project team is working to develop an Alcohol Use Behavioral Phenotyping Test (AUBPT) to understand differences among drinking behaviors based on constructs like reward valuation, relative reward efficacy and proportionate reinforcement due to alcohol.

Marine Conservation Evidence and Synthesis
  • All current Duke undergraduate students and current and incoming graduate students may apply

In the rapidly developing field of ocean science and conservation, evidence synthesis and gap maps can provide informed and data-based direction for government, scientific and philanthropic organizations as they decide how to invest limited resources in particular programs and policy interventions. Building on the work of previous teams, this project team will refine and develop evidence maps and related products in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund and the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation at the American Museum of Natural History. 

Open Design Studio: Participatory Solutions for Human Flourishing
  • All current Duke undergraduate students and current and incoming graduate students may apply
  • Project manager opportunity available
  • Preference for applicants with interest in education innovation or experience with computer science/engineering/coding

The Open Design Studio at Duke is a collective of educators, student and community partners interested in creating solutions to promote human flourishing across social sectors. This project team aims to employ an equity-centered innovation approach to create solutions in five issue areas: education, health, necessity-driven entrepreneurship, climate and sustainability, and food insecurity. 

Pilot PlanktoScope for Climate Change Research
  • All current Duke undergraduate students and current and incoming graduate students may apply
  • Preference for applicants with backgrounds in electronics/fabrication, programming or environmental application (marine science and engineering) 

Developing a better understanding of plankton can have important implications for the sustainable production of food, feed and fuel. This project team will fabricate and test a beta version of a “planktoscope” that has the ability to automatically take pictures of and identify larger plankton (including zooplankton/predators) from marine samples. 

Project Vox: Conducting Philosophical Research on the Margins
  • Current undergraduate students only

The standard canon in philosophy focuses exclusively on European male figures. Project Vox is working to develop open-access, peer-reviewed guides to early modern women philosophers before they are lost to history. Building on the work of previous teams, this team will expand Project Vox beyond 
individual philosophers, highlighting philosophical ideas that arose through conversation and collaboration. 

Role of Physiotherapy in Ugandan Neurosurgical Transitional Care
  • All current Duke undergraduate students and current and incoming graduate students may apply
  • Preference for applicants with an interest in global health, health or physical therapy 

This project team aims to examine current and emerging post-hospital rehabilitation resources for traumatic brain injury or new spinal cord injury patients in Uganda and identify patient/caregiver barriers and facilitators to accessing these resources. This project will contribute to a multiyear effort to develop a culturally appropriate protocol for rehabilitation involvement in hospital discharge to be adopted as recommended practice by key national stakeholders in Uganda.

Socially Engaged Art and Tech at the Intersections of Ecology, Disability and History
  • All current Duke undergraduate students and current and incoming graduate students may apply
  • Preference for applicants with interests and skills in environmental science, ecology, history, engineering, embodied art or creative reflection

The future of human life on earth requires a transformation of humanity’s relationship with nature. This project team will explore ecological consciousness, disability and embodiment through the creation of an interactive, multisite puppetry installation that incorporates innovative technologies and site-specific histories, sounds and communities.

Learn More