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

Twenty-five project teams, including four new teams pursuing research related to Duke’s centennial and one new team exploring geothermal energy innovation on Duke's campus, are now recruiting student team members to begin work in Fall 2023. 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, with the exception of our five new teams, spots on 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 2024-2025 project teams in January 2024.

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 students who have already accepted a spot on a 2023-2024 Bass Connections team are not eligible to apply.

All DKU students may apply to the Improving Cancer Equity Control project which is co-led by faculty at DKU; otherwise, DKU students may only apply if they will be studying at Duke for at least one semester during the 2023-2024 academic year.

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.

Centennial “Pop-Up” Teams 

Agents of Change: Portraits of Activism in the History of Duke Health (New!)

• All current Duke undergraduate students and current and incoming graduate students may apply
• Project manager opportunity available

The histories of medical institutions often focus on the work of a few larger-than-life leaders, physicians and researchers. Less remembered are those figures whose voices challenged the status quo — yet, these are the stories that most need to be collected, preserved and made accessible. This project team will create a digital collection of historical documents and oral histories highlighting the contributions of 15-20 underappreciated activists in the history of Duke Health. 

Duke and the Evolution of Higher Education (New!)

• All current Duke undergraduate students and current and incoming graduate students may apply
• Project manager opportunity available

In the past fifty years, Duke University has transformed from a well-regarded regional institution with just a few mainframe computers to a leading global university. But what forces have shaped Duke into the institution it is today? This project team will generate a set of 40-50 oral history interviews that provide perspectives on the key social, political and educational movements that have remade Duke over the past half-century.

Race and Sports: C.B. Claiborne and Duke Men’s Black Basketball History (New!)

• All current Duke undergraduate students and current and incoming graduate students may apply
• Project manager opportunity available

Duke University men’s basketball is one of the most storied programs in basketball history; however, the program has a complicated history and relationship with Black America. Before 1965, the team was racially segregated. This project team will produce a feature-length documentary on Duke men’s basketball history through the lens and life of its first Black player, C.B. Claiborne, using his legacy to better understand the role of sports and race in the life of the university. 

World Building at Duke in an Emerging Durham: 1924-1932 (New!)

• All current Duke undergraduate students and current and incoming graduate students may apply
• Project manager opportunity available

While the history of Duke’s early building campaign has been researched in its essential parts, the development of the building process itself and the mutual influence of the university and the community remain under-investigated. By taking the building of Duke’s campus as a focal point in the history of Durham, this team will seek to address crucial questions of Duke’s and Durham’s histories and examine how the seeds of our current structures, systems and inequities were planted.

Additional Project Teams Recruiting Students

Duke University Central Campus Geothermal Test (New!)

• Unlike other Bass Connections projects, students do not need to submit an application to join this team but must instead directly enroll in ECS 590-01/CEE 690-07 Geothermal Topics and Practice (half-credit course). This course is only open to juniors, seniors and current and incoming graduate students. Participation will be on a first-come basis.

Since the release of Duke’s first Climate Action Plan in 2009, campus leaders have been working to develop sustainable solutions to a range of campus operations, including campus energy use. This project seeks to build on prior exploratory drilling on Duke's Central Campus to establish if local rock formations can be used as Aquifer Thermal Energy Storages to cool and heat Duke and Durham buildings.

Alcohol Use Behavioral Phenotyping Test for Global Populations

• All current Duke undergraduate students and current and incoming graduate students may apply
• Preference for students with a strong interest in global mental health, an aptitude for quantitative and qualitative research methods, and enthusiasm for working with global collaborators

Alcohol use is a leading risk factor for premature mortality and life-long disability. Building on the work of previous teams that created the Alcohol Use Behavioral Phenotyping Test (AUBPT), a virtual tool that uses games and tasks to assess the user’s risk of alcohol use disorders, this team will further develop and validate AUBPT adaptations in Hindi and other relevant regional Indian languages that will be deployed as an open-source free app. 

America’s Hallowed Ground

• All current Duke undergraduate students and current and incoming graduate students may apply
• Preference for law students and students with diverse cultural, racial and ethnic backgrounds
• Project manager opportunity available

America’s Hallowed Ground partners with communities to help lift historic sites of national significance into the national conversation through multidisciplinary arts projects. This project team will work with America’s Hallowed Ground to create a community toolkit and K-12 curricula for communities that want to explore multidisciplinary arts and storytelling as a way to investigate historical sites and explore the origins and consequences of racial division in the United States.

Assessing and Improving Girls’ and Women’s Math Identity

• All current Duke undergraduate students and current and incoming doctoral students may apply
• Applicants must be comfortable with basic math problem-solving and working with middle school students

The gender gap in STEM fields exists at all levels, from childhood through career selection, and there are many different, but often related, causes for female underrepresentation. Building on the work of previous teams, this project team will work to improve girls’ and women’s math identity by both directly addressing STEM-relevant skills in free math workshops for middle school girls in Durham and incorporating “preparation for bias” research and training into workshop planning and implementation.

Building Next Generation Learning at Duke

• All current Duke undergraduate students and current and incoming graduate students may apply
• Project manager opportunity available

Although the modern world demands different skills of career seekers than it did in the Industrial Era, the education system has largely failed to adapt. This project team will seek to create a new educational framework for equity-focused, innovative learning environments at Duke. Team members will use open design to gain a deep understanding of the lived experiences of Duke students, faculty and administrators as well as the perspectives of changemakers in the education technology and nonprofit sector.

Celebra mi herencia: A Spanish Reading Program

• Current undergraduate students only
• Applicants must be at the 300 level or higher in Spanish, have experience working with children and be interested in working within the Durham Latinx community

Many American school systems position Spanish heritage language skills as a burden rather than a strength. The unique needs of Spanish-speaking students are neglected, to the detriment of their learning and future careers. Building on the work of previous teams, this team will continue the ¡Celebra mi herencia! program, which pairs Latino/a families with undergraduate students at Duke to read children’s books in Spanish by Latino/a and Latin American authors. The team will also conduct research to assess the impact of this model. 

Community-Informed Policy to Improve Latinx Health Outcomes in North Carolina

• All current Duke undergraduate students and current and incoming graduate students may apply
• Preference for Spanish-speaking students and those who have experience in community-engaged research; strong writing skills required

In response to the disproportionate risk and mortality experienced by Latinx communities during the COVID-19 pandemic, Latina clinicians in Durham created the Latinx Advocacy Team and Interdisciplinary Network for COVID-19 (LATIN-19), which aims to dismantle processes that prevent Latinx communities from accessing health services. This project team will mirror the strategies of LATIN-19 by working to identify community-informed policy solutions to increase health equity and improve the responsiveness of the local health system for Latinx communities.

Developing a Roadmap for Goals of Care Conversations at Duke Health

• All current Duke undergraduate students and current and incoming master's/professional students may apply
• Preference for students seeking careers in medicine and/or health policy

Too often, patients facing a serious illness and their families must make complex, life-changing decisions about their medical care without adequate communication about their hopes, fears, values and goals. Building on the work of previous teams, this project will investigate patient-provider communication with the aim of supporting Duke Health’s strategy to ensure that all patients have access to open, accurate and empathetic communication about their goals for care.

Earthquake Early Warning in Kathmandu

• All current Duke undergraduate students and current and incoming graduate students may apply
• Preference for applicants interested in behavioral science, policy and stakeholder analysis

In 2015, the Gorkha Earthquake Disaster in Nepal took the lives of 9,000 people and left 3.5 million without homes. Earthquake early warning is the only way to prevent such devastation in the future. Building on an existing collaboration between faculty and students at Duke and Tribhuvan University of Kathmandu and the work of previous project teams, this team will work to place a smart seismic sensing network in Kathmandu and continue to build in-country capacity for seismic hazard analysis and mitigation.

Economic Evaluation of School-Based Mental Health Systems

• Current and incoming graduate/professional students only
• Applicants must be in the economics field

As we face a national emergency in child and adolescent mental health, it is imperative to implement, evaluate and advocate for sustainable programs that deliver evidence-based mental health practices in schools. This project aims to carry out a benefit-cost analysis of North Carolina Project AWARE (Advancing Wellness and Resiliency in Education), an intervention that employs mental health programs in a multitiered system of supports via promotion, prevention and intervention. 

Enhancing Diversity in STEM Careers Through Mentored Training

• Current undergraduate students only
• Preference for students with a background in education, curriculum development and experiential learning; applicants must have an interest in STEM and a passion for increasing diversity in STEM fields
• Project manager opportunity available

Despite the importance of diversity in STEM fields, underrepresented minorities make up only a small percentage of college graduates majoring in STEM. Building on the work of a previous team, this project will strive to address this disparity by providing interested high school students with long-term career mentorship, educational modules focused on the intersections of environmental science and health, and field experiences around Durham and North Carolina.

Hip Hop Pedagogies: Education for Citizenship in Brazil and the United States

• All current Duke undergraduate students and current and incoming graduate students may apply
• Preference for applicants with Portuguese language skills and/or interest and experience in the interpretive social sciences, education, public policy, social justice, audio and visual arts and hip hop

In the early 2000s, Black Brazilian rapper Dudu de Morro Agudo began working to promote racial, social and political awareness through hip hop, dance, and visual and media arts on the urban periphery of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In partnership Dudu, this project team brings together scholars, artists and students from Duke, North Carolina Central University (NCCU) and the Federal Rural University in Rio de Janeiro to investigate a community-based pedagogical practice that reaches Black and poor youth in urban Brazil by building a democratic culture of rights and citizenship.

Ignite: Improving Students' STEM-Identity Through Human-Centered Design

• All current Duke undergraduate students and current and incoming master's/professional students may apply
• Applicants must have experience or interest in teaching

Many public school students in North Carolina are below national averages in science performance and proficiency, and underrepresented minorities in STEM are disproportionately impacted. Ignite is a STEM program that uses design thinking to train the next generation of innovators in how to solve the most pressing global challenges. This project team will develop a research framework for engineering education to govern future Ignite implementations in Durham and inform the larger engineering education field. 

Improving Cancer Control Equity in China

• All current Duke and DKU undergraduate students and current and incoming graduate students may apply
• Applicants must have a background in computer science, data or public policy; preference for applicants with Chinese fluency

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in China, and there are significant disparities in cancer morbidity and mortality across different regions and subpopulations in the country. This project aims to conduct a series of research investigations in order to identify and develop effective interventions and policies that will help close the cancer inequality gap in China, and to create a series of cancer advocacy resources that will raise awareness of cancer inequity among larger global populations.

Life After Stroke: An Inclusive Approach to Addressing Sensory Health Needs

• All current Duke undergraduate students and current and incoming graduate students may apply
• Preference for students with diverse cultural, racial and ethnic backgrounds
• Project manager opportunity available

After a stroke people often experience major challenges in daily functioning due to various sensory deficits. However, there is very limited research exploring how these deficits impact participation in the health-promoting activities of daily living, and existing research struggles to address stark inequities in stroke care, rehabilitation and outcomes. Building on the work of a previous team, this project will develop interventions that support the sensory health needs of all stroke survivors. 

Marine Conservation Evidence and Synthesis

• All current Duke undergraduate students and current and incoming graduate students may apply
• Applicants must have an interest in evidence synthesis methods and conservation; preference for applicants with skills in website content creation (WordPress)

In this era of rapid social and environmental change for the world’s oceans, evidence synthesis is a powerful tool to draw insights from multiple sources to guide evidence-based decision-making. As such, there is a growing need to train the next generation of researchers in appropriate methods and techniques to conduct robust synthesis. Building on the work of previous teams, this project team will develop evidence maps and other products for tropical marine conservation.

Project Vox: Evolving Curricula for Digital Humanities Publishing

• All current Duke undergraduate students and current and incoming graduate students may apply

In response to the lack of representation in the modern philosophical canon, an interdisciplinary team of students, scholars and staff created Project Vox (projectvox.org), an open-access, peer-reviewed resource on marginalized voices in philosophy. Building on the work of previous teams, this project team will expand Project Vox by researching and writing new philosopher entries, publishing monthly blog posts, designing a new webspace and expanding the network of scholars committed to supporting this work.

Promoting Racial Equity and Housing Stability in Durham Through Financial Relief

• All current Duke undergraduate students and current and incoming master's/professional students may apply
• Applicants must have an interest in the qualitative research process; preference for applicants who also have quantitative data skills

While it is known that the economic and social forces of gentrification have strong implications for racial inequality, there is little research on how low-income households cope with and resist gentrification and displacement. Building on the work of a previous team, this team will investigate how low-income homeowners cope with gentrification, how they interact with real estate investors and how they advocate to remain stably housed, all with an eye to the dynamics of exploitation in the housing market.

Rosetta Reitz’s Musical Archive of Care

• All current Duke undergraduate students and current and incoming master's/professional students may apply
• Preference for applicants from humanities, social science and arts disciplines and those interested in the business, law and economics of the music industry

After a career in which she published two books, owned a bookstore and wrote for music and culture publications, 20th-century feminist Rosetta Reitz started Rosetta Records in 1979. It was the first and only record label specializing in women’s jazz and blues music, dedicated to rereleasing previously underappreciated recordings. This project will use Reitz’s papers housed in Duke’s David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library to inform and construct a new model of creative and scholarly practice for the 21st century. 

Spine Surgery Patient Navigators

• Current undergraduate students only
• Preference for applicants interested in community engagement and health equity as well as students with Spanish language skills

In the United States, about one in four adults has chronic back pain at any given time. However, studies have demonstrated that patients of certain demographics, such as Black and low-income patients, have a higher burden of disease. This project seeks to improve health outcomes for patients undergoing spine surgery, working directly with patients at Duke Hospital to improve the accessibility of existing healthcare resources, expand patients’ social support networks and assist in postoperative mobility treatment.

State of the South: Advancing Equity Through Participatory Data

• All current Duke undergraduate students and current and incoming graduate students may apply
• Preference for applicants interested in social science-aligned data collection or analysis methods

While there is robust quantitative data available about race-based inequality in the United States, less is known about the lived experience of those in the South — information that is needed to understand the current and historical context of quantitative data. This project will help identify and address the bases of systemic racism and social and economic inequity in the American South with an eye toward making it a place where all people belong and can live the life they imagine for themselves.

Learn More

• Check out our new “pop-up” theme on Duke’s centennial.
• Explore how project teams work and consult our Student FAQs.
• Learn about the project team experience through stories from students.