Story+
Learn more about the program below, and scroll down to read full descriptions of this year's 7 projects.
What is Story+? Story+ is a 6-week paid summer research experience for Duke students—undergraduates and graduates—interested in exploring interdisciplinary arts, interpretive social sciences, and humanities research topics and methodologies. The program combines hands-on research with storytelling to create dynamic outcomes for diverse public audiences. In Story+, students are organized into small project teams and have the opportunity to participate in a flexible mini “curriculum” on research methods and storytelling strategies. Team projects may be led by Duke faculty, librarians/archivists or research staff or by non-profit organizations, and will be supervised on a day-to-day basis by graduate student mentors.
Stipends All undergraduate student researchers and graduate student project managers receive a competitive award stipend for participation. Students generally receive half their stipend the last week of May and the other half at the end of June. For participating students receiving need-based financial aid, and any one concerned about how your funding will work for this program or other summer opportunities, please contact your financial aid counselor for further information and personalized advice.
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.
Please browse below to learn more about Story+ projects from 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022. Story+ is funded by Together Duke and administered by the Franklin Humanities Institute in conjunction with Bass Connections, with support from Duke University Libraries.
Questions? We like questions! Email us at fhi@duke.edu!
Keep Scrolling For Our 2023 Projects!

Get Involved
For Undergraduate Applicants
- Story+ Summer 2023 applications are now open!
- Please review the Policies and Expectations for Story+ Student Researchers.
For Graduate Applicants
- Story+ Summer 2023 applications are now open!
- Please review our Policies and Expectations for Story+ Graduate Mentors/Project Managers.
- You might also find it helpful to review our Policies and Expectations for Team Leaders.
For Faculty and Staff
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Our Story+ Call for Proposals for Summer 2023 is now closed. Thanks to all who submitted proposals.
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Please review our Policies and Expectations for Team Leaders
Statement on Diversity & Inclusion
Summer 2023 Projects
Overview: 50 Days of Kindness is a public storytelling project that highlights the creativity and wisdom of people who have experienced incarceration. Difficult experiences often lead to the greatest wisdom; people experiencing... read more »
Topic(s)
Arts, Incarceration, Resilience, Trauma
Overview: Over the past three years, a Duke Bass Connections team conducted oral history interviews about the developments in state-level residential mortgage markets that set the stage for economic turmoil in 2007-08 and beyond.... read more »
Topic(s)
Deregulation, Finance, History, Podcast, Public Policy
Overview: This project interrogates the hoopskirt as an artefact of racist, sexist, and heteronormative practices since the antebellum era that have persisted under the guise of “white Southern” heritage and Confederate nostalgia.... read more »
Topic(s)
Archives, Embodiment, Fashion, History, Queer Studies
Overview: Be part of a once-in-a-lifetime event! Students tell the story of Duke University in the upcoming Duke Centennial exhibit. As part of the team in University Archives, the students will select 100 items that highlight the... read more »
Topic(s)
Archives, Duke Centennial, Exhibits, History, Libraries
Overview: The Duke Campus Farm (DCF) seeks a team of people to help its plants tell their stories. Erlene’s Green Cotton, Brightleaf tobacco, Queen Anne crowder peas – these are some of the crops we grow that hold... read more »
Topic(s)
Climate, Ethnobotany, Food Systems
Overview: El Centro Hispano has been the primary organization representing the Hispanic Latino/a community for thirty years in North Carolina, in particular in the Triangle Area. Story + students would support the collecting and... read more »
Topic(s)
El Nuevo South, Latin America, Migration, Oral History
Overview: After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, OBGYNs in states with bans or severe restrictions on abortion realized within days that their ability to provide the nationwide “standard of care” for women of... read more »
Topic(s)
Health, Medicine, Podcast, Reproductive Justice, Visual Media, Women
Completed Projects
Physical distancing regulations linked to the COVID-10 pandemic... read more »
Advertising is a powerful force within society—both... read more »
For this Story+ program students used a series of new... read more »
Monuments commemorating politicians and soldiers who fought for... read more »
Nearly sixty years ago, a group of visionaries from the North... read more »
In July 2020, Duke will join the national trend of university... read more »
Since opening its doors in 1932, the Duke Chapel has served as... read more »
Student Action with Farmworkers (SAF) has been working with... read more »
American capitalism has always created opportunities for... read more »
The United States has seen an explosion of efforts to raise... read more »