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.
Last year Founding director, William A. “Sandy” Darity, Jr., was named a 2024 Distinguished Fellow by the American Economic Association (AEA). On January 5th, 2025 he received the award at the ASSA Annual Meeting. Darity, the Samuel DuBois Cook Professor of Public Policy, African and African American Studies, and Economics at Duke University, is one of…
Associate professor in the Department of Psychology & Neuroscience at Duke University and Cook Center Faculty Affiliate Dr. Sarah Gaither contributed to a paper recently published in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. The study employed a collaborative multi-site approach, and measured 4- to 6-year-old children’s minimal group attitudes and preference for real-world racial/ethnic ingroups…
The Cook Center is pleased to celebrate Core Faculty Affiliate Keisha Bentley-Edwards in being selected in the 2025 ALICE cohort! ALICE is a 10-month leadership development opportunity for mid-career women faculty in the School of Medicine. The program empowers participants with in-depth experiences in leadership skill development, personal reflection and goal setting, peer mentoring, and structured…
Founding Director William A. Darity Jr. was interviewed for a Forbes Talk by Ali Jackson-Jolley to discuss what economic freedom looks like in 2026. Dr. Darity is one of the leading voices in academia advancing the case for Black reparations in the U.S. He co-authored From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the…
A recent feature highlighted how Kisha N. Daniels, associate professor of the practice in education, continues to expand the reach of her service‑learning course, The Critical Pedagogy of Hip Hop, through community‑centered partnerships with Durham Public Schools. The story follows a semester‑long collaboration between Daniels’ Duke students and 11th graders at Jordan High School, culminating…
A study coauthored by faculty affiliates Joaquin Alfredo‑Angel Rubalcaba and Alberto Ortega explore the effectiveness of worker‑driven social responsibility programs on infant health outcomes in migrant farmworker communities. Published in Demography, the research examines whether the Fair Food Program, a worker‑rights initiative supported by corporate premiums, has had measurable health impacts on the communities it…