Bass Connections Open

Interdisciplinary Themes

Bass Connections projects, courses and summer programs are aligned with the following themes:

Bass Connections Open supports interdisciplinary, team-based research projects and courses that fall outside the scope of the existing themes. This experimental channel is designed to identify percolating areas of interest not addressed by the current themes.

As part of Bass Connections Open, we also issue occasional special calls for proposals related to emerging issues of societal importance (otherwise known as a “pop-up” theme). Past pop-up themes have yielded research teams related to hurricane recovery and resilience (with a specific focus on the local impacts of Hurricane Florence); immigration; and the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

 

Bass Connections Open Project Teams

Image: Mean Mothers Vinyl Album, Rosetta Records, 1980, from Duke University Libraries

This project team will use historical, archival, cultural and social science methods, combining close reading and listening with quantitative data and text analysis, to identify patterns in the Rosetta Reitz archival materials. Read more about Archives and Creative Process: Blues Women and Rosetta Records (2024-2025) »


Image: Participating middle schoolers (GEMs) creating their own Eulerian graphs, by 2022-23 project team

This project team will research the gender gap in STEM, prepare and evaluate a curriculum on bias, and will explore the causes that middle school students and adults tend to attribute to the gender gap in STEM.  Read more about Aspiring STEM Professionals Promoting Gender Equity in STEM (2024-2025) »


Image: Students learn the basics of painting with acrylic and mixed media during a DukeCreate painting workshop at the Arts Anne

This project team will refine and implement seminars for students and faculty on trauma-engaged teaching and learning and will analyze data that will be used to inform future efforts to better support trauma survivors in the classroom. Read more about Developing Best Practices for Trauma-Informed Teaching and Learning (2024-2025) »


Space.

This project brings together scholars and students from across the university to explore human expansion into space through the history of planetary exploration, settlement and colonization on Earth. Read more about Future Space Settlements: Lessons from History (2024-2025) »


Image: Ignite middle schools students learn to solder with undergraduate, Paula (right), by Megan Madonna

This project team will provide validated and equitable hands-on engineering education through the Ignite program that enhances adolescents' self-efficacy as community-focused engineers. Read more about Improving Students' STEM-Identity Through Design and Tinkering (2024-2025) »


Image: Philosopher Nísia Floresta, by Project Vox https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=688036606661940&set=a.491549152977354

This project team will research marginalized figures in philosophy and grow a community committed to transforming the philosophical canon. Read more about Project Vox: Expanding the Philosophical Canon in the Age of AI (2024-2025) »


Image: North Carolina Leadership Forum logo

This project team will contribute to North Carolina Leadership Forum’s goal of bringing together diverse state and local leaders from the government, business and nonprofit sectors to engage constructively on timely and controversial public policy topics. Read more about Strengthening Cross-Partisan Collaboration in North Carolina Policymaking (2024-2025) »


Image: Hope, by Thomas Hawk, licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

This project team will engage with the lived experience of hope as reported by practitioners and community members, including people of faith. Read more about What Is Hope? Bridging the Gap Between Lived Experience and Research (2024-2025) »


Vote.

This project team will explore political identify formation by tracking sixth graders from Wake County, North Carolina, and their parents through the 2024 U.S. elections and across the next six years. Read more about Young Voices: How Kids Develop Political Identities (2024-2025) »


Bass Connections Open Courses

Gateway Courses

EGR 101L: Engineering Design and Communication

Fall 2023
Instructor: Ann Saterbak

In this course, students work in a team to learn and apply the engineering design process to solve an open-ended, client-based problem drawn from a community partner. Read more about Engineering Design and Communication »


EGR 101L: Engineering Design and Communication

Spring 2024
Instructor: Michael Rizk

In this course, students work in a team to learn and apply the engineering design process to solve an open-ended, client-based problem drawn from a community partner. Read more about Engineering Design and Communication »


EGR 102L: Design to Deliver

Spring 2024
Instructor: Ann Saterbak

Students work in a team to apply the engineering design process to complete an open-ended, client-based problem drawn from a community partner. Prerequisite: Engineering 101L Read more about Design to Deliver »


WRITING 101-19: Writing at Duke: 1924-2024

Spring 2024
Instructor: Rhiannon Scharnhorst

"In Their Own Words: Writing at Duke 1924-2024" immerses students in the world of archival research, tracing the evolution of written communication at Duke University. This course focuses on two central questions: How has writing changed at Duke over the past century, and what can these changes... Read more about Writing at Duke: 1924-2024 »


Other Undergraduate Courses

CHILDPOL 325S: Equity in Early Childhood Programs and Policies

Spring 2024
Instructor: Charla Lawrence, Whitney McCoy

This course will explore contemporary theories and empirical research that address issues of equity and early childhood development from birth to age eight. Students will examine factors related to individuals and systems (e.g., child care, public health, housing, workforce, social services) that... Read more about Equity in Early Childhood Programs and Policies »


CULANTH 470S: Capstone: Research in Human Rights

Spring 2024
Instructor: Nancy MacLean and/or James Chappel

This course is designed to help students connect the intellectual themes and scholarly knowledge they have developed in the Gateway, Introduction to Human Rights, and the electives they have taken toward the Human Rights Certificate. The course integrates co-curricular rights-related experiences (... Read more about Capstone: Research in Human Rights »


DANCE 462: Performing Social Choreography

Spring 2024
Instructor: Michael Klein

This course represents a rare opportunity to work with Michael Kliën on an experimental, immersive work of social choreography. Read more about Performing Social Choreography »


ECE 383: Introduction to Robotics and Automation

Fall 2023
Instructor: Siobhan Oca

This introductory course is a challenging introduction to basic concepts used broadly in robotics and is valuable for students who wish to work in the area.  Read more about Introduction to Robotics and Automation »


I&E 252: Learning to Fail

Fall 2023
Instructor: Aaron Dinin

Most people spend their lives afraid of failing. Yet, many of the world’s most successful people failed numerous times on their paths toward success. The underlying question of this class is if failing is as antithetical to learning as we’re taught to believe. To explore this question, we will test... Read more about Learning to Fail »


I&E 290: Designing Ethical Tech

Fall 2023
Instructor: Aria Chernik

No technology is value-neutral. In this course, students will investigate the intersections of design, ethics and technology. The course will ask how technologies can reinforce forms of freedom and oppression; how digital innovations, such as machine learning and algorithmic automation, can... Read more about Designing Ethical Tech »


PUBPOL 213: Arts Policy, Leadership and Engagement

Spring 2024
Instructor: Andrew Nurkin

This community-engaged course provides an introduction to contemporary issues in U.S. arts policy and cultural sector leadership across four broad themes: creative institutions; cultural equity and accessibility; creative placemaking/community development; and the creative economy. Read more about Arts Policy, Leadership and Engagement »


PUBPOL 290: Who's in Charge at Duke?: Leading at Duke in the 20th Century

Spring 2024
Instructor: Andrew Nurkin

Who decides what kind of place a university is? Who sets the boundaries of what can be said in a classroom? What does it take to get a name on — or off — a building? Who controls the student experience, and which groups of people have access to that experience in the first place? How do wealth,... Read more about Who's in Charge at Duke?: Leading at Duke in the 20th Century  »


PUBPOL 301: Political Analysis for Public Policy-making

Spring 2024
Instructor: Philip Napoli

This course aims to provide students with knowledge and skills to engage in powerful policy analysis that takes politics seriously. Read more about Political Analysis for Public Policy-making »


Undergraduate/Graduate Courses

CHILDPOL 532S: Community-Based Research on Early Childhood Policy and Practice

Fall 2023
Instructor: Katie Rosanbalm

This course provides hands-on experience consulting with early childhood organizations, researching relevant topics, and communicating findings with clear, actionable policy recommendations. Read more about Community-Based Research on Early Childhood Policy and Practice »


GSF 590S: The Feminist 1970s

Spring 2024
Instructor: Ara Wilson

This course is a seminar in contemporary issues, methodology and theoretical questions pertaining to feminist scholarship.  Read more about The Feminist 1970s »


I&E 510: Social Innovation Practicum

Fall 2023
Instructor: Kevin Hoch

In the Social Innovation Practicum, students learn about and support the design, development, assessment and scaling of innovative, sustainable approaches to addressing critical social and environmental problems in Durham and around the world. Read more about Social Innovation Practicum »


PUBPOL 590S-03: The Challenge for Business and Society: From Risk to Reward

Fall 2023
Instructor: Stanley Litow

This class will focus on the role of business in addressing some of the most critical societal problems such as labor practices, environmental performance, community engagement, supply chain practices and diversity and inclusion. Read more about The Challenge for Business and Society: From Risk to Reward »


PUBPOL 590S-04: The Politics of Education

Fall 2023
Instructor: Stanley Litow

This class will focus on the state of public education in America and the potential ways of addressing the challenges of improving student achievement. Read more about The Politics of Education »


Graduate Courses

PUBPOL 816: Ethics and Policy-Making

Spring 2024
Instructor: Catherine Admay

This course explores normative concepts in politics, liberty, justice and the public interest, including their historical and philosophical roots, relationship to one another and to American political tradition, and implications for domestic and international problems. Read more about Ethics and Policy-Making »


PUBPOL 816: Ethics and Policy-Making

Fall 2023
Instructor: Catherine Admay

This course explores normative concepts in politics, liberty, justice and the public interest, including their historical and philosophical roots, relationship to one another and to American political tradition, and implications for domestic and international problems. Read more about Ethics and Policy-Making »


PUBPOL 850: Using Human-Centered Design

Spring 2024
Instructor: Aria Chernik, Zach Osborne

The course will give students a set of hard skills associated with design-thinking and also allow students to create and deliver measurable improvements for an organization in the Durham community. Read more about Using Human-Centered Design »


PUBPOL 890: Evaluation Design and Practice

Fall 2023
Instructor: Jessica Sperling

Over the course of the semester, this course will address central conceptual, pragmatic and empirical processes in evaluation, treating evaluation as a mechanism for informing program design. Students will apply learning through partnership with real-world organization/program. Read more about Evaluation Design and Practice »