Policies and Expectations for Story+ Team Leaders

Team leaders for Story+ projects are expected to follow all university policies. The following guidance underscores policies and practices that commonly relate to the work of Story+ project teams, as well as expectations specific to Story+.
 
Commitment to your team and the Story+ model: Story+ project teams are expected to be more than a collection of individuals working in parallel. Instead, they should foster dynamic collaboration in which all members are exposed to the diverse aspects of each project and work together toward shared goals. Story+ projects should provide students and faculty the opportunity to struggle collectively with a complex problem and produce meaningful deliverables – as defined by each individual team. For team leaders, creating this environment includes making the following commitments:
  • As a team leader, you are responsible for setting the overall vision and direction of the project, selecting and forming an effective team, and ensuring progress on the project. However, you are not expected to know all of the answers. We hope that team leaders will engage students in the research process, and expect students (with some support), to help accomplish the project goals. 
  • Student application review: Story+ manages a central intake process for student applications. We expect teams to review and make decisions on student applications in a timely manner. You may NOT accept students on to your team outside of the central process but you are absolutely encouraged to send students to our application portal. 
  • Team activities and accomplishments: Please keep us informed of your team’s progress by sending any products, events or announcements to Lou, Jules, and/or fhi@duke.edu so that we can help share your team’s work. 
  • Reporting: At the end of the year, we expect all team leaders to: 1) complete a short evaluation survey and 2) provide, upon request, a brief summary of outputs. Some themes may request additional reporting.
  • Issues: We know that issues will emerge on occasion related to either students, the research project or an unforeseen incident. Please keep us apprised and know that we are here as your partner in trying to help your team resolve issues.
Acknowledgement: Please acknowledge the support of “Story+ at Duke University” in any publications, conference presentations or team materials. Please also share with us any such work products, as well as news of related grants or projects or courses. If a manuscript related to your team’s work is accepted for publication, please notify us at the time of acceptance (rather than publication) so that we can prepare timely communications of this work.  
 
We expect all Story+ participants to adhere to Duke's Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion, to Story+'s Code of Conduct and to these Story+ Values:
  • Story+ is built upon the foundational values of care, inclusion, and community. Our primary objectives are to enable undergraduate and graduate students to participate in rigorous, hands-on humanities research, to facilitate collaborative and creative research transmission, to support faculty and community-based interdisciplinary humanities research, and to promote teamwork and interdisciplinarity as humanities modes of work.  
  • Our values also animate how we reach out for partnerships across Duke and beyond Duke, in the projects we solicit and select, in the ways we recruit and support students, and in our common programming throughout the summer.  We understand that our work is done with and within a privileged institution of higher education that has a historically complicated relationship with research subjects, objectification, and positivism. To generate humanistic research means paying attention to how structures and systems influence the collection of evidence, methods of analysis, and communication of results and to our particular identities and contexts as researchers.
  • This embrace of situated knowledge does not require that Story+ projects adhere to certain topics, modes of work, or presentation practices; it does however, require a self-awareness about the choices any particular project makes from subject matter, to methodology, to communication with the public, to divisions of labor, and supervisory authority. As such, we ask all potential and participating partners to consider how you might (no matter your topics or goals) acknowledge, address, or understand intertwining systems of oppression (ableism, racism, sexism, heterosexism, etc.) as you plan and undertake your research.

Code of Conduct Statement: Together we’ll aim to create a research environment that respects all cultures, backgrounds, identities, and views and a research community where belonging, respect, and reciprocity are at the heart of our communication and practice. Together we’ll honor our collaborators’ perspectives, identities, and diverse ways of thinking and we’ll hold each other accountable for doing so. Story+ is an inclusive space where all students have an equal right to research, learn, and express themselves. We will not tolerate harassment or harms of any form.

Branding: Your team is welcome to use the Story+ logo and/or Duke logo on materials developed. However, please take care not to represent your team’s opinions as the views of the Story+ program or Duke University. 
 
Story+ Research Symposium: Every team is expected to participate in the annual Story+ Research Symposium at the end of the six-week Story+ term. This event is held each June. 
 
Sharing Research in Other Venues: We encourage you and your team to also pursue other opportunities, at Duke and elsewhere, to share your research, individually and/or as a team. Opportunities at Duke include the Bass Connections Poster Fair, the Visible Thinking Symposium, the Duke Research Blog, the Franklin Humanities Institute website and Youtube page, and other departmental and inter-departmental gatherings. Please let us know if we can assist or support your efforts, or those of your students.
 
Paying students: FHI central manages payments to Story+ students unless other arrangements are made with Team Leaders.
 
Summer 2023 Program Statement: Story+ 2023 will select up to 6 teams. While we have found benefits to remote research work and might return to offering programs with this option in the future, we do not anticipate teams working remotely this year. Therefore all project proposals should anticipate a full return to on-site engagement for summer 2023.
 
Policy on minors: If your team plans to engage with minors (non-Duke students under the age of 18) as part of its research or outreach plan, your team will be required to comply with Duke’s Policy for Minors. Please note that students and team leaders who are engaging with minors will be asked to take a 15-minute training and possibly complete a background check (provisions will be made to support students needing a background check who do not have a U.S. social security number). If you know that your project will require extensive engagement with minors, it is advisable to notify students of this requirement during the recruitment/acceptance phase, providing them the opportunity to raise any concerns.
 
Institutional Review Board (IRB): As with all university research, you, as the project leader, are responsible for seeking IRB approval when applicable. This is a good opportunity to introduce students to this process. For more information about the IRB, and what types of activities require IRB review, please see the “Before You Begin” section of the Campus IRB website. To discuss whether your study needs IRB review, or to begin the IRB process, email Hyewon Grigoni at hyewon.grigoni@duke.edu to schedule a meeting. Hyewon also offers an IRB 101 Workshop for students and teams. To learn about or schedule an IRB 101 Workshop for your class or research team, please contact Hyewon Grigoni directly. This workshop can be done remotely, and credit attendees with Research with Human Subjects Training certification.As your project evolves, please keep the IRB in mind – particularly if students on your team propose secondary lines of research that may require IRB approval.
 
Intellectual property: If your project relates to any in-progress invention disclosures or an invention that you believe has the potential to be patented, we advise that you speak with Duke’s Office of Licensing and Ventures (OLV) prior to engaging students in the project. Please be advised that undergraduate (and often masters) students who work on a project and make significant contributions to that project while operating as a student (not an “employee” on payroll) can make a claim of ownership over the invention (see the rights of undergraduate students). Further, if your project involves a collaboration with an external partner, and involves existing or potential inventions, please consult with OLV to ensure that the appropriate MOUs are established in advance.
 
Transportation: Please see Duke Summer Experiences Transportation Guidance
 
If you have questions or concerns at any time, please contact Lou or Jules and/or fhi@duke.edu
 
This document was adapted for Story+ from the Policies and Expectations document created by our partners at Bass Connections.