PREVIOUS YEARS:
Friedland, Germany
Support for refugees and migrants
Paige Newhouse, from Rushville, Indiana, graduated in May 2017 with majors in History and German. Paige’s Honors Thesis examined the formation of East Germany's foreign policy and state identity and the ways the country’s relationship with North Vietnam impacted the process. In the summer of 2014, Paige received a research grant for a project about how German museums present immigration and German multiculturalism. Paige spent her junior year in Berlin, where she interned with the Berlin Policy Journal at the German Council on Foreign Relations. While she was at Duke, Paige also worked at the Museum of Durham History.
Paige spent her fellowship year in Friedland, Germany, partnering with the Innere Mission and Caritas Friedland to provide support for refugees and migrants. Friedland originally opened in 1945 and is the oldest German refugee camp. It was established by the British military as a transit camp for German expellees and war returnees from Eastern Europe. Today, Friedland is home to hundreds of immigrants seeking asylum in Germany. In the first half of 2015, Germany received twice as many applications for protection than in the entire previous year. Friedland is the first stop for many refuges before they are resettled in other parts of Germany.
For her project, Paige conducted research with the Women’s Center at Caritas Friedland.
Ketura, Israel
Cross-border environmental cooperation in the Middle East
David Rosen, from Dallas, Texas, graduated in May 2017 with a degree in Environmental Engineering. While at Duke, David devoted much of his time to lab research on membrane technology for removing contaminants from water streams, which led him to coauthor a publication at Duke and travel to Leipzig, Germany for a DAAD-RISE internship with the Leibniz Institute for Surface Modification. Outside of the lab, David invested his time in international development projects in El Salvador and South Africa. He also got involved in political advocacy efforts through J Street U, a student movement dedicated to supporting American leadership in facilitating a negotiated, two-state resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
David spent his fellowship year in Ketura, Israel, working with the Arava Institute, a leading environmental studies and research program in the Middle East. Travelling throughout Israel and Palestine, he witnessed firsthand many of the environmental justice issues stemming from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, from communities in Area C of the West Bank being deprived of centralized water and electricity due to complicated (optional: and discriminatory) Israeli planning laws to wastewater overflowing in Negev Bedouin villages due to disagreements between the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli government.
David worked with the Arava Institute to help evaluate the water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) aid projects implemented throughout the West Bank. Through Arava, he had opportunities to work with leaders in the environmental movement and with regional water professionals as they investigate ways to sustainably manage the region’s fragile water resources. For his final product, David conducted a sustainability assessment of WASH projects in the West Bank through interviews and surveys, with a focus on greywater and wastewater reuse projects. He hopes to publish the results with partners from the Arava Institute by the end of 2018.
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
3-D printed prosthetics in developing countries
Henry Warder, from New York City, graduated from Duke in May 2017 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. At Duke Henry worked extensively in the field of prosthetics – volunteering with a prosthetics NGO in Quito, Ecuador, founding an on-campus organization that designs 3D printed prosthetics for Durham amputees, and conducting research on the applications of 3D printed carbon fiber composites for lower limb prosthetic device design. Henry is dedicated to helping others through human centered design, and is passionate about bridging the gap between need and access in underserved amputee communities.
Henry spent his fellowship year working in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, with Nia Technologies. Henry focused on designing clinical implementation strategies for 3D printed prosthetics in one of Nia’s partner clinics, Comprehensive Community Based Rehabilitation in Tanzania (CCBRT). As an undergraduate at Duke, Henry focused on the intersections of 3D printing technology and prosthetic design, and was especially drawn to examining the efficacy of the use of 3D printed prosthetics as a method for increasing access to prosthetic care in underserved communities.
In conducting his field research, Henry worked closely with prosthetists at CCBRT, and applied design thinking principles to collaboratively solve clinical bottlenecks and issues using 3D printed prosthetic technology. For his final project, Henry created a framework for future 3D printing operations of CCBRT, developed a process for creating 3D printed upper limb prosthetic sockets and devices, and designed multiple prototypes of sensor-based clinical technologies.
As is typical, our Hart Fellows' research projects and lives abroad have shifted from their initial expectations. Here are some updates from their lives and work.
Before they were national names, they were Hart Leadership Program speakers. In the last 10 years, the HLP has brought four contenders in the already-crowded 2020 Democratic primary field to Duke’s campus
Laurie Ball Cooper, a 2004-2005 Hart Fellow, recently published an article regarding changes made to the United States asylum policy by Attorney General, Jeff Sessions. In a ruling last week, Sessions overturned a precedent that could grant asylum to victims of domestic and gang violence. Laurie writes about the history of asylum law in the…