Extended Deadline: March 29, 2022
Overview
The Duke University Libraries Summer Fellowship is awarded to first-generation and/or low-income undergraduate students to support library research. The goal of the Summer Research Fellowship is to strengthen opportunities for 1G and low-income students by providing financial support for original research projects. Qualified projects can be at any stage of completion and research may be conducted utilizing resources within Duke University Libraries. The Summer Fellowship is meant to encourage deeper engagement with library resources including special collections and archives and offer students in need the opportunity to further explore their research interests. Students will have a faculty or staff member as a mentor and will be paired with a librarian mentor to help navigate their research experience. Ultimately, students will gain confidence in research skills that will support them throughout their academic and professional careers.
Examples
- Continue research on a Story+ or Data+ project using special collections
- Build upon a recent paper or research project you completed in a previous course
- Extensively use library collections (such as University Archives or government documents) for a senior thesis
- Use the foreign language collections at Perkins Library
- Undertake any interdisciplinary research project involving extensive use of library collections
To learn about the projects undertaken by the 2021 Summer Fellowship recipients, see their reflection blog posts on the library website:
- Priyah Parkash (“From 23% to 4% of the Population, Pakistani Religious Minorities Continue to Suffer”)
- David Marin Quiros (“Finding Home Through Migration: Narratives of Queer Refugees”)
- Isaiah Mason (“Crossing the Cultural Divide: Healthcare Access for African Migrants in Northern and Southern Italy”)
- Gabriela Fonseca (“Black, White, and Brown? Complicating the Racial Dichotomy through an Analysis of Latinx Racialization”)
Awards are granted up to $4,500 to cover expenses such as campus housing, lodging, meals while conducting research, online trainings, and digitization expenses. Because research expenses can vary depending on the field of research and the duration of the project, students are able to pool Fellowship funding with other awards.
We expect Duke will allow on-campus housing and in-person research this summer. However, this is subject to change and subject to university policies. We will communicate regularly with fellows, but please be patient and flexible. To help facilitate planning for alternative means of researching, we will be asking in the submission form for a brief description of alternative ways to work on the project. For example, a student might be able to do part of their research using DUL Digital Collections if they are unable to use a collection in person. Fellows will have opportunities to consult with librarians about alternative approaches, if it becomes necessary.
Learn more on the Duke Libraries website.