Travis Knoll

Degree

PhD in History '21

Project Team

The Cost of Opportunity? Higher Education in the Baixada Fluminense (2017-2018)

Participating in Bass Connections at all levels has honed my scholarship, my commitment to service, and my cultural competency. I have had the chance of working with international institutions to better understand what socially and economically disadvantaged students, here in the U.S. as well as in Brazil, face as they pursue what I and many others at this university often take for granted.

While academics studying themselves may seem like a cliché, the project shed a down-to-earth light on the functioning higher education systems and the human faces that inhabit and fight to enter them. At the same time, it helped develop my dissertation, which deals with the intersection of state education policy, social movements, inequality, and religion. Bass Connections has gifted me with mentors and peers (faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students), resources, and the luxury of time to experiment, connect, and learn through field experience.

This project emerged from my adviser’s connections in the Baixada Fluminense. These connections translated into research partnerships because of Bass Connections Education & Human Development’s generous funding, jointly with the Duke Brazil Initiative and Franklin Humanities Institute’s Global Brazil Lab, of the “Cost of Opportunity” project studying higher education in the region.

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First, I was to develop the local story of Brazilian Liberation Theology since 1976 and its embrace of Brazilian black movements, specifically through mutual efforts to promote ethno-racial affirmative action policies in Brazilian public and higher education.

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Through my time in Brasilia, I networked with key congressional aides in the lower house in addition to academics at the Chamber of Deputies’ research center. Presenting in the Chamber of Deputies research center, CEFOR, meeting headline-making legislators, and getting to know legendary human rights and black movement leaders proved both intimidating and rewarding. I learned to negotiate a world that until recently I had had almost no contact with, a lack which showed up in my often-nervous conversations with these high-ranking officials.

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During that time, I presented on the judges’ legal opinions (votos) in the 2012 decision upholding racial quotas at the University of Brasilia, explaining how judges across the ideological spectrum justified racial affirmative action policies through juridical discourses of difference as applied to gender affirmative action policies already in force. An article resulted, which I published in a December 2017 edition of E-Legis, the peer-reviewed journal run by the Chamber of Deputies.

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Bass Connections has honed my skills in management, service, and mentorship. I served on the Bass Connections Student Advisory Council as project evaluation team leader. I also spearheaded a successful renewal for the Cost of Opportunity project’s third year through Bass Connections (2018-2019), shifting the project from a focus on networking and ethnography to quantitative social scientific production.

On a personal note, I had the honor of working with talented upper-division undergraduates who won awards for their ongoing research and career advancement (Adair Necalli) and senior theses (Chloe Ricks). Our younger members, Riley Allen and Joe Beck, also impressed with their sharp and concise presentation of our year’s work. This project simply would not have run without the interdisciplinary expertise and generosity of spirit exhibited by our faculty team leaders. The success of this project owes a special debt to my graduate peers, especially Stephanie Reist, Andrew Guinn, Aaron Colston, and Gray Kidd, who leveraged their community expertise, joined me in exciting field research, and taught me through their own experience coordinating international and cross-disciplinary projects how to integrate Bass Connections into my own.

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Watching other undergraduates and graduates grow, produce, and continue to better understand the meaning and price of a university education has transformed my Duke experience, my research, and my professional trajectory.