Cook Center Faculty Affiliate Fenaba Addo, Ph.D. joined Leoneda Inge and Stacia Brown in a conversation about student loan debt. Dr. Addo is an associate professor of public policy at the University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill and is the co-author of A Dream Defaulted: The Student Loan Crisis Among Black Borrowers. In this interview,…
As companies scale back on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, Faculty Affiliate Carliss Chatman writes about the legal risks in “running away” from these agreements in article for Bloomberg Law. Chatman is an associate professor a Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law specializing in the fields of corporate law, commercial law, race and entrepreneurship,…
After Maryland’s proposed bill to study reparations was vetoed, Founding Director William A. “Sandy” Darity Jr., Ph.D. shared his perspective with The Washington Post, emphasizing that while the bill’s aim was commendable, state-level efforts are fundamentally insufficient. Based on the research Dr. Darity and his colleagues have conducted on the racial wealth gap, the amount…
Cook Center Director William A. “Sandy” Darity Jr. and former Diversity Initiative for Tenure in Economics (DITE) fellow Stephan Lefebvre published a new article in the AEA Papers and Proceedings titled “Root Causes of the Racial Wealth Gap: A Critique of the Fed View”. In this piece, Darity and Lefebvre challenge the Federal Reserve’s approach…
On May 14, 2025, the Duke Center for Child & Family Policy hosted the Triangle Economics of Education Workshop (TEEW) at the Sanford School of Public Policy. The event convened leading scholars to share and discuss empirical research on the economics of education. Among the presenters was Sungmee Kim, Postdoctoral Associate at the Samuel DuBois…
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…
This weekend, Arielle Solomon will graduate from Duke with a major in Marine Science and Conservations and a minor in Inequality Studies, a combination that displays her appreciation for both animal science and the humanities. Originally from Tampa, Florida, Solomon began her college journey at NYU, where she was studying international relations. “I originally wanted…
When Kelly Padalino was applying to college, her plan was simple: focus on her academics but continue dancing. Her decision to attend Duke set her on a path that combined her love of the arts and public policy, and later, a new understanding of inequality. “I definitely chose Duke because I really wanted to do…