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.
The March meeting of the Center for Child and Family Policy’s Equity in Research Learning Collaborative will welcome Garry Mitchell Jr., Assistant Professor of Public Policy! Drawing on an extensive organizational ethnography of a non-profit organization aimed at facilitating elite educational access for racially and economically marginalized students, this talk explores the ethical and practical…
A research team, including Cook Center affiliates Imari Z. Smith and Lisa A. Gennetian, reveals that concerns about government surveillance deter Black families from enrolling in early childhood home visiting programs. Despite proven benefits—including reductions in maternal mortality and improvements in child development—Black parents are less likely to enroll due to concerns about government surveillance…
Cook Center Associate Director of Research and Director of Health Equity Working Group Keisha Bentley-Edwards was spotlighted by the Black Caucus of the Society for Research in Child Development for Black History Month. From research experiences as an undergraduate at Howard, to the value of mentorship, Dr. Bentley-Edwards details her career experiences and trajectory to…
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…
