The Samuel DuBois Cook Center is a scholarly collaborative that studies the causes and consequences of inequality and develops remedies for these disparities and their adverse effects.
Founding Director William A. “Sandy” Darity Jr., Ph.D., appears in the new short film The Fire This Time, which explores the historical links between pandemics and social unrest. Directed by award-winning filmmaker and artist Mariam Ghani, The Fire This Time weaves together archival and contemporary footage to examine the social reverberations of major pandemics, drawing…
Faculty Affiliate Nancy MacLean, Ph.D. was quoted in opinion article assessing the strategies behind Project 2025 based on her analysis in her 2017 book, Democracy in Chains. Her book identifies traces how Charles Koch and his network have redirected capitalism away from public regulation to allow a wealthy minority to rule. As Ned Barnett writes…
In a recent article for The Indian Express, doctoral fellow Arko Dasgupta reflects on Rabindranath Tagore’s timeless warning: “I will never allow patriotism to triumph over humanity.” Writing amid today’s surge of nationalist fervor and aggressive border politics, Dasgupta draws parallels to Tagore’s own apprehensions about nationalism’s mechanizing force on human relationships. Dasgupta urges readers…
Cook Center core faculty, Nancy MacLean, published an op-ed in the News & Observer titled “Duke leadership is letting down higher ed in a moment it should be fighting back.” In the piece, MacLean warns that American higher education is facing “the gravest menace to its mission in our history,” citing the Trump administration’s reported…
The Historic Durham Armory, the hopping location downtown that once featured acts from Duke Ellington to Ella Fitzgerald and was the inspiration for Ernie Barnes’ The Sugar Shack, hosted another lively event this week: A celebration of the 10th cohort of Young Scholars from the Hank and Billye Suber Aaron Young Scholars Summer Research Institute. …
Sandra Santillan first encountered the Hank and Billye Suber Aaron Young Scholars Summer Research Institute as a high school student at Hillside High School, encouraged by a teacher who recognized her strong writing skills. “I thought I was in trouble,” she says, recalling how her teacher pulled her aside. Instead, the teacher introduced her to…
