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.
Research Affiliate Dr. Eric Griffith published a paper on the relation between religion/spirituality and the rates of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) among Black people in the United States, finding that those who never attended religious services had significantly higher odds of being diagnosed with ADRD than those who attended services more than once…
Cook Center research was featured in Inequality.org Op-Ed on the Racial Wealth Gap. Senior Associate in Research and Communications Strategist Amber Holland takes readers through the work of Cook Center researchers to address questions about the Racial Wealth Gap and debunk common myths in their new study “Setting the Record Straight on Racial Wealth Inequality”….
Cook Center Founding Director William A. “Sandy” Darity, Jr., along with writer A. Kirsten Mullen, were recently interviewed by WUNC North Carolina Public Radio to discuss research from their edited volume The Black Reparations Project: A Handbook for Racial Justice. This research demonstrates a direct connection between slavery and today’s racial wealth gap. In the audio…
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…