These Ph.D. Graduates Incorporated Bass Connections into Their Doctoral Education

May 31, 2019

Graduate students play a crucial role in Bass Connections—often as project leaders or managers, as mentors for Data+ and Story+ summer teams and as research or teaching assistants for Bass Connections courses.

On May 11, more than 250 doctoral students participated in The Graduate School’s Ph.D. Hooding Ceremony at the Durham Convention Center. Among them were many students who took part in Bass Connections; below are a few of them.

Simon Brauer, Sociology

Brauer.

Bass Connections: The Role of Catholic Campus Religious Ministries in the Formation of Young Adults; Data+

Dissertation: Cohort Succession, Intergenerational Transmission, and the Decline of Religion in the United States

Through this Bass Connections project, I’ve been able to guide my students through the full research process (investigate a topic; develop research questions; design and test data collection methods; and analyze the data to answer their questions). Having the time to help them at each step and the opportunity to involve them in real research has been instructive to my own approach to teaching and mentorship.

Joshua Bruce, Sociology

Bruce.

Bass Connections: Reviewing Retrospective Regulatory Review; Data+

Dissertation: Career Dynamics in the U.S. Civil Service

Nathan Bullock, Art, Art History & Visual Studies

Bass Connections: Building Duke: The Architectural History of Duke Campus from 1924 to the Present  

Dissertation: Architecture and the Performance of Citizenship in a Global City: Singapore, 1965-2015

Lok Chan, Philosophy

Chan.

Bass Connections: Moral Artificial Intelligence; How to Build Ethics into Robust Artificial Intelligence

Dissertation: Deliberative Bayesianism: Abduction, Reflection, and the Weight of Evidence

Mercy DeMenno, Public Policy

Bass Connections: Reviewing Retrospective Regulatory Review

Dissertation: The Politics of the Regulatory Policymaking Process: Three Essays on Governments, Markets, and Effective Regulatory Governance

Engaging with our fantastic team of interdisciplinary researchers and policymaker partners throughout the project enhanced the quality of my academic work, enabled translation of individual and collaborative findings into actionable policy recommendations and provided innumerable professional development opportunities.

Caitlin Fang, Psychology & Neuroscience

Fang.

Bass Connections: Emotional Connection: Developing a Mobile Intervention for Social and Emotional Dysfunction

Dissertation: Mechanisms of Change within a Brief, Phone-Based, Behavioral Intervention for Graduate Burnout

William Gerhard, Civil & Environmental Engineering

Gerhard.

Bass Connections: Animal Waste Management and Global Health; Data+

Dissertation: Examining the Role of Ballast Water in the Global Translocation of Microorganisms

Eleanor Hanna, Psychology & Neuroscience

Hanna.

Bass Connections: Moral Judgments by and about Stimulant Users

Dissertation: Data-driven Investigations of Disgust

Christopher Lam, Biomedical Engineering

Lam.

Bass Connections: Low-cost Laparoscopic Surgery with Tele-mentoring; Pocket Colposcope: Analysis of Bringing Elements of Referral Services to Primary/Community Care

Dissertation: The Pocket Colposcope, a Novel Low Cost Digital Colposcope, to Improve Access to Cervical Screening in Resource Limited Settings

Sarah Loftus, Ecology

Bass Connections: Marine Microalgae for Sustainable Production of Food and Fuel

Dissertation: Microalgae Growth in Recycled Cultivation Water

Forever Duke Student Leadership Award

Imani Mosley, Music

Mosley.

Bass Connections: America's Sacred Spaces

Dissertation: ‘The Queer Things He Said’: British Identity, Social History, and Press Reception of Benjamin Britten’s Postwar Operas

Emily Pechar, Environmental Policy

Bass Connections: Regulatory Disaster Scene Investigation; The Role of Catholic Campus Religious Ministries in the Formation of Young Adults

Dissertation: Depolarizing Environmental Policy: Identities and Public Opinion on the Environment

Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching

Thomas Polley, Economics

Polley.

Bass Connections: Growth Mindset in Bangladesh: Evaluation of an Intervention to Increase Learning in Schools

Dissertation: Essays on Human Capital in Bangladesh

Danielle Purifoy, Environmental Policy

Purifoy.

Bass Connections: Strengthening Community Environmental Health through Duke-HBCU Partnerships

Dissertation: North Carolina [Un]incorporated: Place, Race, and Local Environmental Inequity

Giulia Riccò, Romance Studies

Bass Connections: Sowers and Reapers: Gardening in an Era of Change

Dissertation: Fascist Fiction: Inventing the Lesser Evil in Italy and Brazil

As the digital coordinator and teaching assistant for the [project], I have had the privilege of witnessing how ideas about climate change, environmental justice and gardening take a unique shape through our discussions and field trips.

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Photos courtesy of The Graduate School