DURHAM, N.C. – The Black-white health gap is one of the most striking examples of the depths of racial inequality in the United States. Why does it persist? A new paper from researchers at the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University investigates—and refutes—a popular argument for the causes of this disparity….
Founding Director, William “Sandy” Darity, discussed the potential racial and social harms of a nearly all white presidential cabinet on the Tavis Smiley Podcast. He acknowledges that while representation matters, it does not inherently guarantee policies that advance equity. I don’t think that visual representation is a sufficient basis for making a judgement about any…
The Cook Center is proud to celebrate Faculty Affiliate Lauren Brinkley-Rubenstein in receiving the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers! Lauren Brinkley-Rubinstein is an Associate Professor of Population Health Sciences and core faculty in the Samuel Dubois Cook Center on Social Equity. On January 14th, President Biden awarded nearly 400 scientists and engineers…
The Hank & Billye Suber Aaron Young Scholars Summer Research Institute is a program that provides high school students enrolled in Durham Public Schools (DPS) with training to enhance their writing, research, and presentation skills. The program is sponsored by the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University in partnership with Durham…
In 2015 the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reported that only 6 percent of full-time faculty are Black and 5 percent are Latino, and these numbers are lower in economics. Similarly, a 1994 study found that there were eleven Black economists teaching at the nation’s twenty-five highest-ranked universities; a 2006 study identified thirteen such…
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…
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 Developmental Science. The paper addresses the ways in which young children rely on a mutual intentionality framework to confer group membership. There were two studies…
Cook Center Faculty Affiliate Carliss Chatman provided comments in Spectrum News 1 article on the legal battle surrounding the states of Texas and New York on abortion rights. The conversation comes after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s lawsuit against a New York doctor for prescribing a medical abortion drug to a Texas woman. I think,…