These Ph.D. Graduates Incorporated Bass Connections into Their Doctoral Education
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
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
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
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
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
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
Bass Connections: Moral Judgments by and about Stimulant Users
Dissertation: Data-driven Investigations of Disgust
Christopher Lam, Biomedical Engineering
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
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
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
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.
Learn More
- See how students have leveraged their research for theses and dissertations.
- View examples of publications and other outputs from Bass Connections project teams.
- Learn what some Bass Connections alumni are doing now.
Photos courtesy of The Graduate School