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.
Faculty Affiliates Loneke Blackman Carr, Assistant Professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Connecticut, and Kristen Cooksey Stowers, Assistant Professor in the Department of Allied Health Sciences at the University of Connecticut and Adjunct Assistant Professor in Population Health Sciences at Duke University, recently co-authored a new paper. The study highlights…
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…
Faculty Affiliate Lauren Brinkley-Rubenstein, Professor of Population Health Sciences at Duke University, recently contributed two publications. She authored an op-ed in Health Affairs examining how Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) budget surge has created a growing public health crisis, highlighting the consequences of prioritizing detention spending over community health. In addition, Dr. Brinkley-Rubenstein co-edited the…
Founding Director William Darity Jr. co-authored a new literature review in The BMJ that directly addresses one of the most persistent critiques of reparations: the claim that no feasible plan exists. The proposal outlines direct monetary payments as the clearest economic measure of the cumulative and intergenerational effects of white supremacy. The article argues that…
Cook Center Director William A. Darity Jr. will be among the featured speakers at an upcoming public hearing hosted by the New York State Community Commission on Reparations Remedies (NYSCCRR) on Saturday, March 21st, 2026, in Staten Island, New York. The hearing, titled “Economic Development: Quantifying Harms,” is part of the Commission’s statewide effort to…
New research co-authored by Faculty Affiliate Sarah Gaither, Associate Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience at Duke University, explores how something as routine as demographic forms can influence feelings of inclusion and identity among marginalized communities. Published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, the study—“Enumeration or Exclusion? Demographic Forms and Latine Identity”—investigates how demographic questions may…
