Spend Your Summer with Story+

January 10, 2018

Story+ projects

How do we tell compelling stories about complex historical, cultural and social realities? What goes into creating great stories that stay with the audience, and even change minds? Story+ is a six-week summer research experience for students interested in bringing academic research to life through dynamic storytelling.

Story+ is offered through the Franklin Humanities Institute and Bass Connections, in partnership with Versatile Humanists at Duke. It is open to:

  • All undergraduates, except graduating seniors
  • All graduate students, with preference given to doctoral students in the humanities and interpretive social sciences.

How It Works

In Story+, small teams of undergraduates collaborate on projects that contribute to the broader research, teaching, scholarly communications and/or public engagement agendas of Duke faculty, Duke librarians, nonprofit organizations and other University or non-University project sponsors.

Students learn to conduct qualitative, humanities-based research (e.g., archival research, narrative analysis, visual analysis, ethnography) and to communicate their research through effective storytelling techniques. Each team receives active, daily mentorship from a graduate student in the humanities or interpretive social sciences.

Final projects may take the form of writing, exhibits, websites, short films, podcasts, social media content or other genres.

Applications for Summer 2018 (May 17 – June 28) will open on January 12. Application review begins on February 5; applications will be accepted until all teams are filled.

Undergraduate students will receive up to $3,000 to defray housing and living expenses (please note that amounts may vary for projects with off-campus components). Graduate students can receive a stipend or travel support up to $2,500.  

Explore the 2018 Story+ Projects

An Illustrated Memoir of the Global HIV/AIDS Pandemic: The Maria de Bruyn Papers Speak
Appalachian Stories: Young Voices from Madison County, North Carolina
Coal & America: Stories from the Central Appalachian Coalfields
Left of Black Story+ Project
Preaching and Protest: Sermons from Duke Chapel during the Civil Rights Era
Remapping the Caribbean: Archives of Haitian & Cuban Migration, Detention & Legal Activism
Student Action with Farmworkers Audio Documentaries
The Allen Building Takeover @ 50 Exhibit
Women in the Labor Movement
Stone by Stone: Who Built the Duke Chapel?

Get Answers to Your Questions

Come talk to Story+ representatives at the Bass Connections Fair on January 24, and learn more at the Story+ Info Session on January 25.

Learn More