Summer 2022 Provost Internships: Project Descriptions

Duke’s Office of the Provost is offering a broad set of opportunities to support Ph.D. students during Summer 2022. A number of experiential internships with external organizations are available by application, along with other internship and research assistant opportunities with Duke units across campus. See application details and FAQ.

American Historical Association

Research & Publications

The American Historical Association (AHA) invites a Duke University predoctoral fellow for the summer of 2022 to work with the AHA’s research and publications department. The fellow will report to the AHA’s managing editor Laura Ansley and director of research and publications Sarah Weicksel.

Working for 19.9 hours per week over 12 weeks, the fellow will gain valuable editorial and writing experience, which will aid them in a career outside the academy or as a faculty member. In particular, the fellow will: improve communication and digital literacy skills by learning editorial skills and writing at least one article for Perspectives on History; increase quantitative literacy and gain experience with collaboration by working on data projects; and gain intellectual self-confidence by learning new skills and gaining an introduction to the culture and processes of a nonprofit organization. (Learn more about these skills at www.historians.org/fiveskills.)

The American Historical Association is the largest professional organization serving historians in all fields and all professions. The AHA is a trusted voice for history education, the professional work of historians, and the critical role of historical thinking in public life. Learn more about our work on behalf of the entire discipline at www.historians.org.

Work remotely with the Perspectives on History editorial team. The fellow will:

Receive training in and assist with editorial work, including evaluating articles for publication, editing drafts, and conducting image research.
Write at least one article for Perspectives Daily, the online-only portion of the magazine.
Analyze annual data on author demographics and magazine content.
Update archival content on the website using basic HTML skills in a content management system.

Work on the Racist Histories and the AHA project. The fellow will:

Conduct research in the AHA’s publications (American Historical Review and Perspectives on History) to determine which historians were excluded from the obituaries section.
Attend regular, remote meetings of AHA staff and assist on other projects as appropriate.

The AHA is currently working remotely and regularly hosts remote internships. The fellow will have regular meetings with internship supervisors, attend departmental and all-staff meetings, and have the opportunity to attend professional development brown bag talks and informal coffee hours.

Central Park School for Children

Anti-Racist Curriculum & Pedagogy Development

This internship would support the development and implementation of anti-racist curriculum and pedagogy at Central Park for Children. The intern will be working with the school’s Equity Coach to design, distribute and implement: culturally responsive K-8, all content area lessons and curriculum, staff-wide professional development, and school-wide professional resources to support pedagogical practices.

The internship will take place during CPSC’s second year with the role of Equity Coach and several years into the school’s journey towards creating a school where all children thrive. The intern will work under the supervision of the school’s Equity Coach to conduct supplemental research and revise the inaugural version of the CPSC’s K-8 anti-racist curriculum which was created during the Summer of 2020. Furthermore, the candidate will help to explore the questions:

How can we change our staff’s hearts and minds to effect sustainable, systems-level, anti-racist change?
How can we provide our staff with the strategies, resources, and tools necessary to promote and support all staff’s anti-racist personal and professional development?

The intern may support by documenting the teachers’ learning through teacher observations and the regular collection of teacher lesson plans. Given the lack of existing metrics to assess anti-racist classrooms, our Equity Coach is working to develop these materials using the standards from Learning for Justice. This will evolve into CPSC’s learning lab model that will continue to adapt to our student population. The intern will support the Equity Coach in the development of these tangibles.

Furthermore, the intern and Equity Coach will work together to create a triangular design that collects and assesses the growth of parents, students, and teachers through materials that include an anti-racist classroom rubric; action plans for differentiated, individualized teacher growth; and a curriculum that is culturally responsive and relevant, multicultural, and includes a social justice orientation and highlights the resistance of marginalized populations.

Ongoing projects include the development and documentation of model classrooms, cataloging the school’s equity vocabulary, collecting and quantifying survey data from staff, and researching best pedagogical practices. Additionally, the intern will get the opportunity to engage with the campus Directors and Executive Director of the school in assessment of effectiveness and results of the year’s work. The internship will be a mixture of remote check-ins and in-person meetings.

Don’t Waste Durham

Environmental Equity & Social Justice

Don’t Waste Durham is conducting a pilot study called The ReCirculation Project, which will address multiple environmental equity and social justice issues. We would like an intern to work together with us to finalize our project’s design based on pre-pilot survey data, develop and finalize data collection tools, and conduct monitoring and evaluation for the study, reporting on results and insights and making conclusions. Don’t Waste Durham has a Study Implementation Plan, and we are drafting a set of measurable outcomes. The project’s goals are to:

Recover value lost whenever materials enter the struggling recycling system
Build the volume required to make the project a financially sustainable business
Support the local economy and build a resilient community by creating jobs, generating more revenue for local companies, and saving local businesses money
Reduce the waste sent to landfills, carbon emissions, and other environmental harms.

To do this, we are partnering with a diverse and inclusive list of 50-100 local producer businesses who want their durable packaging back to reuse again. We will educate the community about the power of buying local products and create incentives for them buy from the local producer partners. We will collect used glass jars and bottles via doorstep pickup and at community drop off locations. We will then wash, sanitize, dry the containers. We will count, organize, store as needed. We will sell back durable containers to the partner businesses.

The intern will be a member of The ReCirculation Project planning and implementation team at Don’t Waste Durham and attend a weekly Zoom meeting. The intern will work closely with Don’t Waste Durham staff and volunteers via Slack, email, and Zoom. The majority of the intern’s work can be completed remotely. The intern is not required to participate in any of the in-person portions of the pilot project.

Duke Bass Connections

Analysis of Interdisciplinary Research & Learning

Bass Connections seeks a research assistant to work with program leadership during the summer of 2022 to conduct a landscape analysis of analogous interdisciplinary research and education programs, to draft publications seeking to share lessons learned from the Bass Connections model with other institutions, and to help design a symposium on interdisciplinary and collaborative learning.

Bass Connections is a university-wide program designed to create a distinctive new model for education. Involving all of Duke’s schools, the program actively engages students of all levels and faculty in the exploration of complex societal issues through year-long research teams, summer programs, and project-based courses.

In 2022-2023, the program will celebrate its 10-year anniversary and will host a symposium on interdisciplinary and collaborative learning to share lessons from the program. Key responsibilities of this position are designed to support planning for this symposium and an associated publication.

Key tasks include:

Conducting a landscape analysis of analogous interdisciplinary research and education programs, identifying programs to spotlight in a symposium and/or publication
Identifying key speakers and attendees for the symposium
Drafting publications summarizing lessons learned from the Bass Connections model
Designing the symposium agenda, with a particular focus on interactive and engaging sessions

Qualifications:

Strong written and oral communication skills
Ability to conduct independent research and synthesize large amounts of information concisely
Interest in higher education administration, interdisciplinary research and pedagogy
Experience with Bass Connections a plus

Time commitment:

We seek a research assistant interested in working up to 19 hours a week for two months of the summer. We are flexible with regards to start and ending dates. This position will be fully remote.

Duke Career Services

Alumni Engagement

This position is jointly sponsored by the Office of Interdisciplinary Studies, Career Services, the Research Office of External Partnerships, and Alumni Affairs, but will work most directly with Career Services. The intern will help develop and execute a plan to engage Duke graduate alumni and local/regional employers about expanding and deepening experiential learning opportunities for Duke Ph.D. students, with a focus on summer internships and projects within signature programs like Data+, Code+, Story+, CS+, and Climate+. A secondary focus will be cataloguing known PhD internship opportunities with Triangle area companies.

Key tasks include: analyzing existing data; identifying individuals and organizations for outreach; developing and conducting a survey (or surveys); developing and conducting focus groups and possibly individual interviews; analyzing resulting data; and compiling reports as necessary.

Experience with research methods such as interviewing, survey construction, and focus groups is crucial. Excellent quantitative skills preferred. Familiarity with software such as NVivo would be a plus.

Duke Center for Computational Thinking

Ph.D. Computational Fellowship

The Center for Computational Thinking’s Ph.D. Computational Fellowship provides Ph.D. students in any Ph.D. program who lack summer funding with foundational classes in data science to accelerate their own research program. The fellowship provides students with project- and team-based learning to better prepare them for data-centric research problems, and aims to create a pipeline of diverse, curious, and savvy individuals who will be future leaders in computation. Through this program, students continuously develop their emerging programming skills to apply to academic centered research questions. During this summer-long fellowship, students apply their new computational skills to research problems relevant to their fields, from the humanities to the social sciences to the sciences. At the conclusion of the summer, the students prepare a short presentation and record of their project to share broadly.

The Computational Fellows will be required to participate in the Summer Bootcamp: Introduction to Data Science. This workshop introduces the emerging field of Data Science, including data analysis and visualization. Students will be provided with datasets, and introduced to packages and code used to examine data. In the first half of each class, students will be lectured on methods and shown demonstrations; in the second half of each class, students will use tools to analyze real data; laptop computers are required. Methods for filtering, sorting, and transforming data will be discussed along with visualization tools and options. Particular attention will be paid to code interpretation and data provenance methods by learning to generate reproducible data output files. For a final project for the bootcamp, students will present their research question and exploratory data analysis, and will share findings with the class in a short oral presentation. Although specific pedagogical datasets will be used for analysis in class, this workshop will provide broadly applicable tools to reproducibly analyze and visualize data across domains.

Duke Clinical & Translational Science Institute, Center for Equity in Research

Equity in Research

We are seeking a doctoral level Equity in Research Summer Intern. The intern will work closely with the EIR leadership and team as we build on the key focus areas of our new center. These six focus areas serve as the pillar for our engagement with Duke researchers, university leaders, policymakers, and the broader community. The focus areas include: Thought Leadership, Resource Development, Education and Training Initiatives, Special Equity Initiatives, Capacity Building & Policy Change, and Health Disparities/Equity Research. We are particularly interested in an intern with experience and a keen interest in promoting equity throughout the research continuum, from teams, project development and funding, to execution and dissemination.

The EIR intern will work under the supervision and mentorship of Drs. Keisha Bentley-Edwards and Dane Whicker to expand on the Education and Training Initiatives Focus Area, with the possibility of working collaboratively on the other key areas. Our goal is to have several evidence-based training modules completed that address equity, anti-racism, and anti-bias in research and research teams. The intern will gather and organize evidenced-based practices and collaborate on the design or improvement of trainings and workshop modules. Opportunities for collaboration on manuscripts are also available.

We are a small, but mighty team committed to equity in all areas, but especially health. All of our meetings are virtual and will continue to be virtual in the foreseeable future. We are looking for a self-motivated, independent learner, worker, and overall team player. We have weekly standing meetings with the whole team, and the intern will have weekly mentorship and direct project meetings with Drs. Bentley-Edwards and/or Whicker. Additional meetings will occur as needed.

The EIR Intern should have experience or a keen interest in promoting, executing, and supporting research from an equity based, anti-racism, anti-biased framework. More information about EIR can be found on our website: https://ctsi.duke.edu/community/center-equity-research

Duke Curriculum Development Committee

Undergraduate Curriculum Development

This internship will provide research support to the activities of the newly chartered Curriculum Development Committee. Interns will collect scholarly research (i.e., relevant journal articles), work with data on the Duke curriculum and students’ paths through that curriculum, identify and summarize peer curricula, and perform other research activities that assist the committee in its preparations for curriculum planning. The position is ideal for students who have interests in undergraduate education, the scholarship of teaching and learning, program management, or related areas.

The activities of the interns will be guided by the discussions of the committee, which has just been formed and will begin meeting shortly. The interns will correspond primarily with the committee chair (Scott Huettel), but will also work with many other committee members on an ad hoc basis. All work can be conducted remotely/via Zoom.

Duke Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Triangle Center for Evolutionary Medicine (TriCEM)

Evolutionary Medicine Summer Programs Coordination

The Evolutionary Medicine Summer Programs Coordinator will assist in planning, facilitating, and contributing to the Triangle Center for Evolutionary Medicine (TriCEM)’s summer programming, which includes a variety of educational workshops, other trainings, science communication, and working group meetings to advance research. TriCEM’s summer programs cover a diversity of topics, including core evolutionary medicine principles and computational techniques, One Health education and research, pathogen transmission networks, and evolutionary perspectives on cancer. Specific projects and duties will vary based on the PhD student’s skills and interests.

Specific duties will vary based on the student’s skills and interests, but could include work in planning and facilitating any of TriCEM’s summer programming, which includes a variety of educational workshops, other trainings, science communication, and working group meetings to advance research.

TriCEM’s summer programs cover a diversity of topics, including core evolutionary medicine principles and computational techniques, One Health education and research, pathogen transmission networks, and evolutionary perspectives on cancer. Working closely with Drs. Charlie Nunn and Meredith Spence Beaulieu, the PhD student intern will contribute to coordination of these programs through, for example, testing and serving as a teaching assistant for computational labs associated with the Evolutionary Medicine Summer Institute, assisting with organization and leadership of applied field training experiences, logistical organization of working groups, science communication to highlight TriCEM research, and/or contribution to collaborative research efforts.

The intern will receive training in fundamentals of team science and research administration. The intern will also benefit from opportunities for formal teaching experiences and involvement in highly collaborative research in teams that cut across diverse disciplines. PhD students from any topical areas with an understanding of evolutionary principles and an interest in applying evolution to issues of medical or veterinary importance are welcome to apply. Candidates with skills in project management, teamwork and leadership in research settings, and/or science communication and teaching are preferred.

Duke Department of Romance Studies

Language Pedagogy for Undergraduate Education

To prepare for the launch of a new Multilingual Writing Center, two interns will work on research and development for a set of best practices for the program. The Multilingual Writing Center will provide advanced undergraduate students with crucial support for their writing in Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese. These two internship positions will research parallel structures in English to explore what configuration has best served students, and will examine the literature writing pedagogy in these different languages to identify specific issues that may arise working across different linguistic contexts. The interns will collaborate with the relevant Language Program Director and in consultation with faculty to understand what both faculty and students need from the center. The interns will produce a document with proposals for the particular structures for the center and best practices for the faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates. One intern should be a current graduate student in Spanish/Portuguese, the other in French/Italian.

Over the last several years, undergraduate students in advanced courses have often requested a Writing Center that would provide support for their writing in Spanish, French, or Italian that is similar to the support that they receive from the Writing Center for their work in English. Our advanced doctoral students are ideally suited to offer this assistance. It offers them another way to participate in the teaching after they have gone through teaching apprenticeship and serving as instructor of record, this center would keep them engaged in the development of undergraduate students.

To prepare for the launch of this new center, we need two interns to develop a set of best practices for the different parts of the program. The student will do research on parallel structures in English to explore what configuration has best served students: open hours or embedded in specific courses, for example. They will also examine the literature writing pedagogy in these different languages to identify specific issues that may arise working across different linguistic contexts. The interns will collaborate with the relevant Language Program Director and in consultation with faculty to understand what both faculty and students need from the center. The intern will produce a document with proposals for the particular structures for the center and best practices for the faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates. One student should be in Spanish/Portuguese, the other in French/Italian.

The nature of these internships is such that research and development could proceed easily in a remote/virtual work environment if necessary through virtual meetings between interns and faculty.

Duke Divinity School

Oral History Project

2026 marks the centennial of Duke Divinity School. Like other schools and colleges at the university, it is a season of reckoning with and celebrating the past while looking to the future with hope in a new century of opportunity. One of the richest resources in constructing a useful past for the Divinity School are the alumni, faculty, and staff whose lived experiences form the core of the institution’s history. The Duke Divinity School Oral History Project seeks to interview former faculty, staff and alumni living in the Durham area and present the material to the school’s archival collection as part of the centennial celebration.

The Duke Divinity School Oral History Project seeks two doctoral students to work as summer oral history interns. Some training or familiarity with oral history theory and interviewing techniques is preferred but not required. Successful candidates will be expected to work 19.5 hours per week for a 12-week period, and will include interview training and practice, background research on the history of Duke Divinity School, and interviews with select former faculty.

Dr. Quinton Dixie will meet regularly with interns to go over weekly progress, discuss interview schedules, and to review the work. While the interviewees all reside in the Durham area, it is possible for all work to be done remotely, if necessary.

Duke Forest

Governance & Land Use

The Office of the Duke Forest at Duke University is responsible for accomplishing the mission of the Duke Forest and maintaining excellent stewardship of the forest ecosystem (dukeforest.duke.edu). Our ability to complete this work is affected and influenced by the governance and land-use policies of surrounding jurisdictions, which includes 3 county governments and at least 3 municipal governments. However, to date, we have lacked a comprehensive assessment and characterization of what governance and policies, and importantly the trends in these realms, exist, and how they might affect our mission, management, and strategy. Having this information would allow Duke to proactively engage with local government and land-use decision making, when necessary, to protect or advocate for our interests.

Relevant background/qualifications (helpful but not required): local governance and land-use policies; GIS and spatial analysis; stakeholder assessment; background in history, sociology, political science, or anthropology; familiarity/experience working with public documents and/or engaging in interviewing as a research method.

Duke Forest staff will provide information, geospatial data, equipment as needed. Collaborators in regional conservation efforts will provide insight and perspectives. Local government officials and advisory board members can also provide insight and perspectives, as well as key information on local policy that may affect Duke Forest.

This project is suitable for a remote work/virtual experience.

Duke Initiative for Science & Society

Science Communication Curriculum

The Duke Initiative for Science & Society (S&S) is seeking two PhD students who are passionate about improving science communication(SciComm) opportunities for Duke students and Faculty. Interested students will work with members of the S&S faculty and staff to: create a strategic scoping document of SciComm trainings (including those from Duke, other universities, and the private sector); identify best practices in teaching SciComm and combatting misinformation and disinformation; identify the ethical issues embedded in effective SciComm; identify/develop assessment tools to determine the effectiveness of various SciComm offerings; conduct an assessment of S&S’ and other current Duke SciComm offerings; and begin development of a curriculum design to provide a versatile set of SciComm offerings for use across Duke. This work will require skills in both qualitative and quantitative assessment, as well as challenge the Interns to think creatively of how to identify, develop, incentivize, and coordinate opportunities for effective, ethical SciComm at Duke.

Strategic Scoping Project:

Define the scope of what SciComm entails, what programs/persons are already providing SciComm education at Duke, the specific programming available, and a comparison to other university and private sector SciComm programs
Identify challenges (personnel, policy, costs, barriers) at Duke that impede robust, comprehensive, and integrated SciComm education across departments
Identify (and/or develop) best practices in teaching SciComm and combatting misinformation and disinformation at Duke and other universities and the private sector
Identify the ethical issues embedded in effective SciComm and best practices in incorporated them into the curriculum
Explore the use of asynchronous content to teach SciComm.

Assessment Plan:

Identify (or develop) assessment tools to determine the effectiveness of various SciComm offerings
Conduct an assessment of S&S’ and other current Duke SciComm offerings, including interviews with faculty, guest lecturers, students and program coordinators and a review of student deliverables
Develop a continuous assessment plan for courses which identifies metrics, timeframes, and responsible staff.

Curriculum Design:

Begin development of a curriculum design to provide a versatile set of SciComm offerings for use across Duke, including in graduate and undergraduate program, in science and humanities courses, as stand-alone classes and as modules to incorporate into other courses
Develop a plan to coordinate key stakeholders at Duke to promote these goals.

Weekly check-ins with supervisors to develop work plans/priorities and provide updates on progress.

It would be preferred that this position be at least a hybrid experience with the interns spending time in person with S&S at their office in the Bullpen (Imperial Bldg., 215 Morris St., Durham).

The ideal candidate will have a working knowledge of science/technology and a passion for science communication. Disciplinary backgrounds from the natural sciences, social sciences, or humanities with a focus on the intersection between science, technology and broader societal discourse preferred.

Duke John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute

Humanities & Climate Communications

The John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute (FHI) invites applications for a Doctoral Summer Intern in Humanities Communications. Working primarily with FHI Associate Director Christina Chia, the Intern will conceptualize and generate faculty/student interviews, profiles of research projects and collaborations, or other content aimed at engaging Duke campus and broader higher ed audiences. In anticipation of Duke’s University-wide initiative on Climate Change, we would like the Intern to focus on content that highlights ongoing FHI projects in environmental humanities and environmental justice and that, more generally, articulates the significance of humanistic methods, questions, and concepts for climate research. The Intern will generate materials for (1) campus communications, especially strategic outreach to the sciences and professional schools and (2) the FHI Annual Report, intended for both campus and external audiences.

The ideal candidate should be an excellent writer and should have experience communicating humanities scholarship and concepts for public, non-specialist audiences. They should also have research interests in environmental humanities or related fields. Experience with social media, multimedia/visual communications, and graphic design is a strong plus.

PhD students who have an interest in public humanities and/or University administration are encouraged to apply. At the FHI, the intern will find a dynamic, intellectually enriching environment and a staff that boasts a diversity of professional and academic expertise, including “Versatile Humanists” who have applied their advanced academic training towards multiple career pathways.

Duke Kenan Institute for Ethics

Research & Grant Proposal Writing

The PhD intern will work with The Purpose Project in the Kenan Institute for Ethics to research and write a draft of a grant proposal to a foundation that will focus on developing and evaluating programs that integrate questions of meaning, purpose, and character into undergraduate and graduate/professional education. The Purpose Project is a project funded by The Duke Endowment focused on designing and implementing curricular and co-curricular programs that create opportunities within a Duke education for students to take stock of their goals and aspirations in the face of questions about commitment and character, virtues and values, meaning and purpose that confront us as human beings and as citizens.

The intern will meet regularly with and have guidance and supervision from The Purpose Project team, including the director of the Kenan Institute for Ethics, while also being entrusted with significant autonomy to explore projects similar to The Purpose Project at other institutions, to research and think creatively about how such programs are and should be evaluated, and to propose future programing that is consistent with aims of The Purpose Project.

The intern should be comfortable with survey and other evaluative methods and data and should be interested in getting students to think about questions surrounding meaning, purpose, and character. This internship would offer the student an opportunity to develop knowledge and skills in a variety of areas, such as research on programs similar to The Purpose Project at other institutions, drafting grant applications, and contributing to the development of new and existing programs in collaboration with The Purpose Project team.

Duke Public Affairs & Government Relations

Qualitative Diversity & Inclusion Research

Duke Communicators is a confederation of 400 self-identified staff members in varied roles that include communications and marketing to internal and external stakeholders. Of these 400, less than 10% are members of underrepresented minority groups.

Under the direction of the Director of Administration for Public Affairs & Government Relations and in conjunction with the co-chairs of the Diversity Action Alliance Human Resources Subcommittee, the intern will analyze available data from the Duke campus climate survey to help us better understand the environment, culture and challenges experienced by Duke communicators of color, and what actions might be taken for improvement. The intern will also help us gather more information to supplement the survey data by refining our research question, preparing for focus group discussion, leading focus group(s), assessing results, and presenting data and recommendations. A short report with analysis and recommendations will be due at the end of the internship.

The ideal candidate will be experienced in qualitative research techniques. Preferred start date for this 6-week internship is May 16, though this is flexible, and could be combined with other work. This work can be conducted remotely, with weekly Zoom or phone meetings with supervisor. Focus group session(s) could be conducted via Zoom or in person, depending on recommendation of the Ph.D. intern and current Duke coronavirus policies and guidelines. An orientation meeting with the subcommittee members will help the intern learn more about this project.

Duke Social Science Research Institute

Evaluation of COVID-19 Relief Solutions

This internship would be involved in community-partnered research and evaluation efforts based in SSRI. Most notably, this role would be a core part of a partnership with the North Carolina Dept of Public Instruction (DPI), and specifically with the new Office of Learning Recovery (OLR). DPI has funded new summer learning programming beginning in 2021 and into 2022 to address COVID-related educational needs and inequities; yet, there is a need for greater understanding of how they are implemented and how they can succeed. To address this critical community need, SSRI is partnering with DPI on a qualitative evaluation research study to better understand the implementation, challenges, assets, and effects of this Covid recovery summer programming. The intern would be involved in qualitative data collection exploring this per the perspective of parents, students, and school/district personnel. The internship will include qualitative data design and on-the-ground data collection (interviews, observation) with parents, students, and school/district personnel.

We have indicated one role, but it may be possible to engage two students. We seek a Duke Ph.D. student intern who is interested in equity and societal improvement; is able to work in a team as well but also able to work independently; is conscientious, organized, and proactive; and has experience or training in qualitative methods. There would be some flexibility in start and end dates per student need.

This student would join SSRI’s established Applied Research, Evaluation, and Engagement team. The student would be engaged in recurring project meetings pertaining to the projects in which the student is involved. In addition, the student would be invited to join recurring overarching team meetings, which include opportunities for each team member to reflect collectively on challenges, successes, and learnings in our work; this reflective opportunity will be valuable to student development. This engagement with a team would provide the intern with an array of individuals beyond his/her supervisor with whom to engage in thought partnership and mentorship.

This team has primarily been working remotely. If continuing remote work into summer, we would allow the intern to do the same for “in-office” (vs. in the field) needs. We have established processes for virtual team engagement, and we have had students work with our team since the start of the pandemic, including with prior summer Ph.D. interns; this provides a valuable basis in virtual engagement for this incoming student. While we are primarily virtual, we do work in person as needed and would expect the intern to do the same as needed. Among needs, this would include “in the field” in-person needs for qualitative data collection. If in-person work is needed in an office setting, the student would have space available to work at SSRI’s Gross Hall.

Duke University Press

Preparation of Books for Publishing

The Book Acquisitions department at Duke University Press hopes to hire 2 graduate students, ideally with a humanities and/or social sciences background. The students would perform duties necessary to support the department’s yearly goal of publishing 150 cutting-edge book titles in the humanities and social sciences. The Book Acquisitions group reviews and solicits manuscripts, decides which books to publish, then oversees the peer review process, along with the process of revision and preparation of the manuscript for production. The students would thus perform tasks critical to this process, including formatting manuscripts, organizing the art program for books, and writing book summaries to be presented to the Editorial Advisory Board (composed of Duke University faculty), among other pre-production tasks.

Duke Press publishes top scholarship in the humanities and social sciences, including in fields like anthropology, religion, political theory, history, cultural studies, Black studies, Queer studies, media studies, and science studies. Students with a background and/or interests in these fields will have an opportunity to engage with the newest scholarship in these fields. The Book Acquisitions group reviews and solicits manuscripts, decides which books to publish, then oversees the peer review process, along with the process of revision and preparation of the manuscript for production. The students would thus perform tasks critical to this process, including formatting manuscripts, organizing the art program for books, and writing book summaries to be presented to the Editorial Advisory Board (composed of Duke University faculty), among other pre-production tasks.

Beyond performing editorial duties that will support the departmental goal of publishing 150 book titles this year, the students will have the opportunity to engage in professional development activities that will allow them to learn more about Duke University Press more broadly and the field of academic publishing at large. These will include networking with staff in other departments (including our Production and Design, Intellectual Property, and Marketing and Publicity teams) as well as shadowing meetings, such as weekly meetings where editors present new book projects that just entered the production stage and discuss how they will be marketed alongside our Marketing team. The position would thus be ideal for students potentially interested in careers in publishing, as it will provide invaluable opportunities for students to network with a broad range of publishing professionals across departments.

The position will be a remote/virtual position. Due to the fact that the Press has been fully remote since the beginning of the pandemic, all of our processes, including student training, meetings, and networking chats, have been successfully adapted to operate virtually through Zoom, email, and/or via our internal servers. Students will be trained remotely and will then conduct mostly independent tasks, but supervisors will be readily available to communicate via email and/or messenger, so they will be able to ask questions and seek help immediately if needed. On occasion, students might be able to attend optional in-person gatherings with other staff members and students across departments that will follow Duke’s COVID safety protocols.

Durham Technical Community College

American Literature Research for Curriculum Diversification

Assist in a project to diversify the curriculum for important General Education courses – American Literature I and II, with special focus on literature written before 1865 – so they are inclusive of groups that are traditionally left out of the canon. This would include the following: connect with existing faculty and resources involved in similar projects, research work from underrepresented communities in American Literature, and create course content that can be accessed through Sakai by future instructors.

The fellow will meet (virtually) with the internship supervisor weekly to plan and coordinate work on the project.

Durham Technical Community College

Data Analysis of Transfer Students

The Summer Experiential Fellow will help collect and analyze data concerning key metrics for University Transfer students at Durham Technical Community College. This includes measures involving student success in key English and Math gateway courses as well as those that concern curriculum completion and equitable outcomes for students.

In additional to other sources, a great deal of data is available through the interactive dashboards managed by the University of North Carolina System and the North Carolina Community College System. Work will also be conducted to determine best practices for organizing, assessing, and utilizing these academic metrics.

If needed, this work can be completed entirely via remote/virtual contact.

Durham Technical Community College

Equity Gap Research

This is an opportunity for a PhD student to address equity gaps in student success rates in community college classrooms. The intern will work with community college instructors to identify social factors affecting students, review the literature to find promising interventions to support students, and work with community college instructors to adapt the intervention so it can be piloted in a first-year composition class. This project may borrow interventions from other disciplines that address social determinants of health.

The fellow will meet (virtually) with the internship supervisor weekly to plan and coordinate work on the project.

Durham Technical Community College

Pedagogical Best Practices for Online Instruction

This Summer Experiential Fellow will conduct literature review concerning pedagogical best practices for synchronous online instruction as they are applied to college-level general education courses. The Fellow will also work closely with Durham Tech’s Instructional Technologies Team to support a multi-departmental effort to design and develop faculty training for synchronous online instruction.

The work is in support of a project to create a block schedule of high-demand first semester courses for students in our University Transfer programs. It involves three major departments within the College and is aimed at improving student success rates by 5% and decrease withdrawal rates by 10% relative to success/withdrawal rates in parallel asynchronous sections. Synchronous online instruction promotes student academic success and also responds to recent Durham Tech student survey requests for additional interaction with online instructors.

The Fellow will be working with Distance Learning experts who are skilled in negotiating any remote/virtual work needs.

Hope Renovations

Market Analysis

Hope Renovations’ mission is to inspire hope in women and older adults for a joyful and fulfilling future. We do this by empowering women to pursue living-wage jobs in the construction trades via our hands-on training program, while our construction program provides repairs and renovations that enable older adults to stay in their homes as they age. We have recently dipped our toe into corporate training, and are interested in pursuing opportunities to expand this side of our operations as it provides much needed revenue to support our programs’ sustainability. The Strategic Program Development Intern would perform market analysis, offer recommendations, and create an implementation plan, including marketing recommendations for this initiative.

Hope Renovations is a nonprofit organization based on social entrepreneurship principles. Our unique model focuses three key stakeholders to improve our community by serving women and marginalized genders with access to good jobs in the skilled construction trades, serving adults 55+ with sliding-scale repairs and renovations for safe and comfortable aging-in-place, and serving trades employers by decreasing the skill and gender gap in the trades workforce.

Bringing together over 15 years of corporate experience at Lowe’s and IBM, Hope Renovations’ CEO Nora Spencer founded Hope Renovations in 2017 after going back to school for a Masters of Social Work. Hope Renovations launched its programs in 2020 and has since trained 43 women and nonbinary folks in the Trades Training Program and completed over 100 repair and renovation projects for older adults. We are growing strategically with goals to expand to another NC metropolitan area within three years and to add an out of state location within five years.

Hope Renovations has been featured on numerous news outlets, including CBS This Morning. In 2020, Hope Renovations received the Innovation Award from the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce. Nora Spencer has been awarded the Inspiration Award from the Triangle Business Journal in 2021 and the Young Professionals Award from the National Homebuilders Association at the International Builders’ Show in 2022. Our Trades Training Program is a free program for underemployed women and people of marginalized genders to gain training and skills for living wage jobs in the skilled construction trades. Under the umbrella of trades training, we also offer DIY workshops to the community and would like to expand into other offerings. We have recently dipped our toe into corporate training, and are interested in pursuing opportunities to expand this side of our operations as it provides much needed revenue to support our programs’ sustainability. Ideas for training that we can offer are: OSHA-10 safety training; forklift and heavy machinery training; core pre-apprenticeship trades training (via HBI or NCCER curriculum); entry-level supervisory training; and soft skills training.

We would like to better understand what offerings might appeal to businesses in our industry. What do they want/need? Where are they currently getting their training? How much do they pay for their training? What “unique value proposition” can we offer them that other training providers cannot?

Ideally, the intern will provide these deliverables: market analysis; offerings recommendation, including pricing; implementation plan, including marketing recommendations,

JusticeMatters

Community Health/Food Security & Nutrition

JusticeMatters provides trauma-informed family law and humanitarian immigration legal services at no cost to immigrants and families throughout the Triangle (and serves survivors of human trafficking statewide). JusticeMatters utilizes a public health and trauma informed approach to both our program philosophy and service delivery, operating from a belief that legal services are critical to increase access to key resources and services that promote the social determinants of health for individuals and our community. JusticeMatters is eager to engage with an interested PhD student to conduct a literature review specifically examining the link between legal service access and key health outcomes.

Over the years, clients of JusticeMatters have shared that access to legal services (and receiving legal remedies) has allowed them to access healthcare, obtain employment, purchase homes, pursue education, and reunite with family. JusticeMatters believes this information from clients supports the hypothesis that legal services are critical to increase access to key resources and services that promote the social determinants of health for individuals and our community. JusticeMatters is taking steps to prove this hypothesis and has identified that completing a literature review is an important step to guide the process. The student would collaborate with JusticeMatters leadership, particularly the Chief Program Officer, to 1) understand the project goals and objectives, 2) gain knowledge around legal services and remedies (as needed for the literature review), 3) complete the literature review, and 4) present to the leadership team (and select board members).

For the last two years, JusticeMatters has largely operated in a remote/virtual environment. Staff members have engaged with student interns through email, phone calls, chat streams, and video calls. We have strategically worked to create virtual spaces, beginning at orientation, to envelop student interns into our organizational culture through team meetings, weekly supervision, and fun gatherings like “Tea Time” for virtual games and trivia on the first Thursday of each month. Supervisors serve as the main point of contact and connector for the student intern on the JusticeMatters team.

MDC

Equity & Prosperity in the South

The Summer Doctoral Associate will have specific focus on MDC’s State of the South series. For more than 20 years, State of the South reports have been a major resource and reference for policymakers and practitioners, offering rigorous, insightful views of the Southeastern US through the twin lenses of equity and competitiveness (https://www.mdcinc.org/home/knowledge-bank/state-of-south/). In 2022, State of the South: True South will expand to include a series of convenings, reports, online content, and the arts to explore how — and if — Southerners are reckoning with this moment of economic, social, and environmental upheaval. The aim of this year’s series is not to define a True South, but to capture a bigger picture of the region than MDC has before by including voices from all over the geographic, social, and power map. Topics that will be explored through the series include: Reclaiming Southern History and Narrative; Strengthening the Infrastructure of Support for Children and Families; Advancing Equitable Communities and Economies; and Sharing Power and Wealth.

The Summer Doctoral Associate will play a key role in data collection and analysis for the reports and convenings, which will be developed in partnership with Duke’s Social Science Research Institute.

Responsibilities of the Associate will include:

Develop brief data profiles that provide indicators of the current state of equity and prosperity across the South. Each data profile will be organized around one of the topics listed above and will be used as a starting point for conversation at community convenings. Profiles will include state-by-state indicators for MDC’s 13-state region: AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN, TX, VA, WV.
Contribute to the qualitative design, implementation and analysis of discussions that occur at community convenings. MDC will hold up to four convenings in 2022, co-hosted-either virtually or in-person-with local partners in communities across the South. The events will be organized around a specific topic and will include a mix of academic, policy, practitioner, and community perspectives, including moderated large and small group discussions. Participants will have the opportunity to respond to data profiles though their own narrative and sharing of lived experience, with the discussion serving as another unique data source. Analyses of the qualitative data will explore how personal experience adds to, complicates, or counters trends seen in the data profiles.
Support other aspects of convening development or implementation as interested. Given the wide range of activities and topics this year, the Associate will likely have the opportunity to contribute to State of the South in other ways based on personal interests and experience.

The Summer Doctoral Associate will be jointly supervised by MDC and Duke SSRI, with SSRI serving as the primary intellectual home for the student. The Associate will work closely with Kristin Feierabend, MDC’s Director of Learning and Impact, and members of SSRI’s established Applied Research, Evaluation, and Engagement team. The student will be engaged in recurring project meetings pertaining to State of the South. They will also be invited to other MDC and SSRI team meetings to reflect collectively on challenges, successes, and learnings in our work. Through this experience, the Associate will be able to connect with an array of individuals beyond his/her supervisor who can serve as thought partners and mentors. Both MDC and SSRI have provided quality internship experiences to students in the past and are excited to do so in partnership this summer.

Both MDC and SSRI continue to work remotely for “in-office” (e.g., non-fieldwork) needs. If continuing in this way into summer, the doctoral intern would do the same. Both organizations have established processes for virtual engagement, and both have had students work with us during the pandemic. While we are primarily virtual, we do work in person as needed and would expect the Associate to do the same. This would include in-person qualitative data collection at community convenings. If an office setting is needed for in-person work, the student would have space at SSRI’s Gross Hall.

National Humanities Center

Preparation of Scholarly Work for Digital Project

This internship provides selected students the chance to work closely with National Humanities Center staff and scholars to curate, frame, produce and translate scholarly work for a dynamic new digital project, the Humanities Town Square. We are looking for an independent and enthusiastic graduate student to provide leadership as we move this new initiative from a draft framework to publication and national distribution. This opportunity will involve working with a variety of digital and narrative content and platforms, engaging partners across the country, and providing innovative contributions to the design and editorial framework of what will ultimately serve as the Center’s primary public humanities platform.

The Humanities Town Square is a new NHC digital platform intended to provide the general public with a portal to indulge their curiosity and to encounter the humanities in fresh and intriguing ways. The site is divided into sections loosely connected to a small town “commons.” This includes site elements like the Library, where visitors can find new and notable humanities book titles, conversations with authors about their writing, and recommended reading lists. There will also be a Bandstand, which will include a variety of themed playlists and a “Liner Notes” section with resources to contextualize and enhance the listening experience. The Screening Room will provide a space for visitors to immerse themselves in a documentary or other humanities-based audiovisual programming. The Newsstand will provide a dynamic contemporary perspective on current events and issues from leading scholars, activists, and other humanities professionals.

Interns will help to craft and document a sustainable editorial review process. They will also oversee content creation and curation while helping to assemble a national network of sponsors and contributors to ensure that the site remains dynamic and authoritative. Opportunities for individualized professional development and networking will be prioritized throughout the course of the internship.

Ideal candidates will have some experience with multimedia production and distribution/marketing, with some skill in audio recording and editing, script design and production, and content sourcing. Familiarity with social media strategies, as well as digital platforms such as WordPress, Vimeo, or Soundcloud is also desirable. The most qualified candidates will also function well as part of a highly collaborative team and will be committed to the wide dissemination of the humanities as a public good. Keen eye for detail and production value.

North Carolina Department of Justice, Consumer Protection Division

Exploration of Antitrust Remedies

We are interested in retaining an intern who has technical expertise in the area of computer science or other related technology who could work on a project involving, broadly speaking, interoperability, data portability, and/or data sharing — or other similar remedies — as potential antitrust remedies (i.e., remedies designed to increase competition in the technology sector). The project would also likely involve analysis of a number of privacy-related issues that we would want to examine while considering any such remedies. Among other things, the project might involve examination of issues pertaining to the technology of how search engines work, use of data in advertising, anonymization of data, differential privacy and other related issues.

The project would involve direct engagement with the director of the Consumer Division, and 1-2 other attorneys in the Consumer Protection Division. There might also be some engagement or meetings with attorneys from Attorney General offices in other states. Weekly check-in meetings, along with other occasional meetings as needed, are anticipated. Such meetings could take place remotely/virtually. The office uses Microsoft Teams to conduct virtual/remote meetings and has the ability to participate in virtual meetings using other services.

RTI International

Diversity & Community Engagement

This internship is based in RTI International’s Center for Communication Science. The Center employs an interdisciplinary group of investigators (across all degree levels) that are funded by multiple federal, state and foundation entities to help address problems in health care, health behavior change, public health, and social justice.

RTI was funded by the All of Us Research Program as one of two Retention and Innovator Awardees. The All of Us Research Program (allofus.nih.gov) is building a national cohort of 1,000,000 people that reflects the diversity of the United States to help drive innovations in precision medicine, and develop a better understanding of how genes, behavior and environment interact to produce health and illness. To support this work, RTI is using a community-driven, human-centered design and developmental evaluation approach to build and test digital engagement experiences that support better engagement between the All of Us Research Program, diverse communities across the United States, and the health care providers who serve them. Intern responsibilities include:

Assisting with the synthesis of information from design sprints with health care providers, and diverse community members to inform prototype development
Assisting with analysis of qualitative data generated from the design sprints
Contributing to digital strategy related to engagement experiences for health care providers and diverse community members
Attending project meetings
Ad hoc project tasks as needed to accomplish responsibilities listed above.

Qualifications: Currently enrolled as a Duke doctoral student in a discipline related to psychology, social or behavioral science; strong interest and previous experiences working to solve health disparities and working with diverse communities and/or health care providers; demonstrated experience with qualitative (use of NVivo) and/or quantitative data analysis; experience working on a research team that has developed digital solutions to address a health or social problem. Preferred Qualifications: Background in health communication.

RTI International

Global Noncommunicable Diseases

The NCD Initiative leads RTI’s growing business in global NCDs, working with experts across the organization and global partners, coordinating client projects and business development, and setting a vision for RTI’s contributions to preventing and managing the risks and diseases that constitute the largest health burdens globally. The program conducts contract and grant funded research in the areas of chronic, noncommunicable diseases, including diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, and the main risk factors for NCDs including obesity, tobacco, poor air quality, and alcohol. Our program provides clients with innovative research, valuable economic analysis, and effective policy evaluation to improve public health.

Access Accelerated is a collaboration between more than 20 pharmaceutical companies that is committed to tackling the growing burden of NCDs in low- and middle-income countries. As the Access Accelerated measurement partner, RTI International is working to document lessons and achievements of the coordinated collective impact investments made by member companies. We are working to capture Access Accelerated accomplishments, learnings, and impact in order to generate and apply evidence to strengthen access to high quality NCD services in low- and middle-income countries. The findings from RTI’s evaluation will help to inform local and global priority health policies; to accelerate public and private investment in NCD prevention, treatment, and care in LMICs; and to set a gold standard for impact and rigor in public-private partnerships.

Responsibilities may include, but are not limited to: interpreting data on the performance of NCD screening and treatment programs; researching disease burden, policy, and health economics related to NCDs; preparing summaries of research findings for a range of audiences; participating in meetings with RTI staff, partners, and collaborators to discuss projects.

This internship opportunity is ideal for students interested in research in the fields of global health, international development, public-private partnerships, monitoring and evaluation, and/or global health policy. The intern may also gain experience in economic and outcomes evaluation of NCD programs and policies, innovative approaches to NCD screening and treatment, and the epidemiological transition in low- and middle-income countries.

Two or more years of experience in international development or global health-related research, preferably including technical consulting. Experience living in a low-resource setting preferred. Strong analytical capabilities (e.g. data cleaning, statistical knowledge) and facility with statistical software, such as Stata, R, and/or equivalent. Additional advanced expertise using Excel a plus. Outstanding organizational skills with a demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously, prioritize among work demands, and deliver impeccable quality products. Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English, including facility with presentation tools such as PowerPoint. Compelling storytelling experience using data visualizations a bonus. Individual initiative and ability to work in a small team environment, accepting flexibility in work assignments. Attention to detail and accuracy. Excellent sense of humor.