Students Receive Summer Funding for Documentary Projects From Minnesota to Zambia

Five undergraduates have received 2024 John Hope Franklin Student Documentary Awards from the Center for Documentary Studies. Grants of up to $2,000 will support project-based documentary fieldwork and research over the summer.

These awards are named for John Hope Franklin, the late professor emeritus of history at Duke, in recognition of his lifetime accomplishments and his dedication to students and teaching. Applicants must be registered undergraduate students at Duke, NC Central, NC State or UNC Chapel Hill.

Recipients of 2024 John Hope Franklin Student Documentary Awards

Andrew Cao ’25 and Angelica Moreno ’27 (Duke)

Stars, Stripes and Dinero Dreams

Amidst a Latine entrepreneurial growth in America, this documentary film reveals the personal struggles and triumphs of a few Latine business owners in Minnesota.

Artivista Karlin ’27 (Duke)

Decoding the Gender Binary: Multimedia Documentary Fieldwork on Transgender Communities Existing and Resisting in Florida

Through this multimedia project, Karlin plans to create a historical community archive for trans artists, activists and people within Florida and LGBTQIA+ communities in the surrounding states.

Maxwell Simbuwa ’26 (UNC)

Farm to Table

This short documentary on Zambian food systems explores the challenges faced by small-scale farmers, nutritional gaps, the experiences of everyday citizens and innovative solutions promoting good health and food security.

Huiyin Zhou ’24 (Duke)

Survivors Anchoring Art Narrative Garden

SAANG is a multidisciplinary and social practice art project between several Chinese queer feminists supporting each other in healing from cyberbullying and harassment. They collectively envision and redefine their path toward healing, rebuilding trust in community, care work and their bodies through art, storytelling and memory sharing.