Duke Law students awarded a Bass Connections grant for research in Oaxaca, Mexico
Their work builds on the Duke partnership with the International Organization for Migration (the UN Migration Agency)
Duke Law students Drew Loughlin (left) and Alex Bindrim (right) will be using their Bass Connections grant award to conduct research in Oaxaca, Mexico this summer.
Drew Loughlin JD '27 and Alex Bindrim JD ’27 have been awarded a $3,000 Bass Connections grant to support research and travel in Oaxaca, Mexico. They will examine the dynamics of land disputes and conflict resolution under overlapping constitutional, state, and customary law frameworks, with a focus on how Indigenous customary systems interact, and at times conflict, with state law and development policy.
Working in a remote and under-researched region, Loughlin and Bindrim aim to collect insights that cannot be captured through desk research alone. They will conduct interviews and focus groups and collaborate on-site with UN partners. Their research is intended to inform efforts related to displacement prevention, housing, land and property rights, and peacebuilding in Mexico.
The project builds on initial findings and extends work that Loughlin and Bindrim are doing in Professor Mara Revkin’s Spring 2026 experiential course, Transitional Justice and Peacebuilding in Practice, in which students work on real-world legal research projects in Mexico, Ethiopia, and Sri Lanka through a partnership between Duke and the International Organization for Migration (the UN Migration Agency). Prof. Revkin will act as their faculty mentor. The course, which is new to the Law School this year, builds on Prof. Revkin’s previous Bass Connections course on Evidence-Based Humanitarian Aid Delivery in South Sudan (2024-2025).
"We are grateful for the opportunity to expand on our ongoing legal research for Professor Revkin’s Transitional Justice seminar. This work is particularly meaningful to us as a chance to contribute to understanding the truly rare legal phenomenon in Oaxaca,” said Bindrim. "There, three overlapping systems of law (Mexican federal law, recognized indigenous legal autonomy, and international human rights law) come together to enable the indigenous people of Oaxaca to meaningfully govern themselves while protecting fundamental freedoms guaranteed in the international sphere.”
"IOM (the UN International Organization for Migration) has been seeking to develop a legal understanding of property rights in Oaxaca and we are especially excited to speak to local NGOs who can help inform our recommendations,” added Loughlin. "We hope that this Bass Connections grant underscores for future Duke Law students that this kind of work is possible, and that Duke has the wherewithal to support it.”
Bass Connections engages students in tackling major societal challenges through interdisciplinary research. Across summer programs, semester-long courses, and research grants, undergraduate and graduate students collaborate with faculty on work that spans disciplines and borders. The program builds on Duke’s collaborative culture to advance knowledge in service to society.
“I’m very proud of Alex, Drew, and the whole class for the creativity and dedication they have brought to our work with IOM," said Revkin. "I was very fortunate to have an opportunity to do some research for IOM in Iraq when I was a graduate student, which became a turning point in my career, and it has been incredibly exciting and rewarding to share a similar experience with my students at Duke Law School — with many thanks to the Dean’s Office for enabling me to bring this partnership to our curriculum."