KIE forges new partnership with Bass Connections

Last spring, Duke announced a new interdisciplinary initiative thanks to a substantial gift from Anne and Robert Bass, the Bass Connections. KIE is now the first of Duke’s signature institutes to partner with Bass Connections to offer support for projects. These projects must have an ethical dimension, preferably with a connection to one of KIE’s five program areas in Human Rights, Global Migration, Rethinking Regulation, Moral Attitudes and Decision-Making, and Religions and Public Life. Another aspect of the KIE-supported research teams will be a public symposium on the project’s topic.

Bass Connections supports interdisciplinary teams of collaborators, providing undergraduates with the opportunity to join faculty, graduates students, and post-docs. These teams work on problem-based research around the themes of brain & society; information, society & culture; global health; energy; and education & human development. KIE is already heavily involved in a research team for Displacement, Resettlement and Global Mental Health that builds on existing KIE research and programming with refugees.

The new partnership between KIE and Bass furthers the missions of both to foster innovative work and thinking across different kinds of expertise on campus as well as to enrich student education.

Faculty who are interested in proposing a project should review the Bass Connections request for proposals and contact KIE faculty, Senior Fellows, or Faculty Council members already working within the program areas.