Ralph Bunche Summer Institute

Duke University, Durham NC

Investigators

Abstract

General Summary The Ralph Bunche Summer Institute is designed to expand opportunities for students-of-color by preparing black, Latino, and American Indian undergraduates to enroll in doctoral programs and become political science college and university professors and/or researchers in the field and related fields. The RBSI immerses undergraduates in the summer of their junior year in a five-week intensive program that includes graduate level course work, and the design, analysis, writing, and presentation of original research papers. The program simulates the graduate school experience and focuses on scientific analysis by introducing the students to research methods and statistics, and the research enterprise that is the lifeline of professional political scientists. Results show that the RBSI is succeeding in increasing the numbers of students-of-color in political science graduate programs, and the numbers of blacks and Latinos with doctorates in political science, as well as several cognate social science fields. The majority of these individuals are now faculty at universities across the nation. Technical Summary The Ralph Bunche Summer Institute is designed to expand opportunities for students-of-color by preparing black, Latino, and American Indian undergraduates to enroll in doctoral programs and become political science college and university professors and/or researchers in the field and related fields. The RBSI immerses undergraduates in the summer of their junior year in a five-week intensive program that includes graduate level course work, and the design, analysis, writing, and presentation of original research papers. The program simulates the graduate school experience and focuses on scientific analysis by introducing the students to research methods and statistics, and the research enterprise that is the lifeline of professional political scientists. Those students whose empirical papers are judged to be of high quality are invited to present their papers in a poster session at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association.