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Innovating for a More Just and Equitable Society
The Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity is a leading interdisciplinary hub dedicated to the scientific study of the causes and consequences of inequality and the development of research-informed solutions. Through rigorous research, transformative education, and public engagement, the Center produces scholarship that strengthens the evidence base for addressing inequality and improving societal conditions.
Research Pillars
Educational and economic opportunities play a central role in shaping people’s life chances, yet access to these resources remains uneven across communities. Led by Professor Anna Gassman-Pines, the Educational and Economic Opportunity pillar examines why these disparities persist and how they influence trajectories of mobility, wellbeing, and social advancement. It also generates evidence on policy approaches and intervention strategies that may improve access to opportunity.
This pillar studies the social, institutional, and policy contexts that shape pathways into quality education, stable employment, and economic security. Its work considers how factors such as school environments, labor markets, housing conditions, and public policy influence opportunities from early childhood through adulthood. By analyzing these systems together, the pillar highlights how unequal conditions accumulate and interact over the life course to affect outcomes for individuals, families, and communities. Through its research and educational initiatives, the pillar advances understanding of the forces that structure economic and educational mobility and informs efforts to expand meaningful access to the resources people need to flourish.
The conditions in which people live, work, and age shape their chances for long and healthy lives. Communities across the United States experience vastly different social and environmental conditions, with important consequences for health. The Health Equity pillar, led by Professor Hedy Lee, examines why some populations consistently experience poorer health outcomes and how these patterns emerge and persist over time.
Research in this area investigates a broad set of influences on health, including socioeconomic conditions, chronic stress, discrimination, environmental exposures, and experiences with the criminal legal system, among others. The work focuses on how these factors interact at individual, community, and societal levels to generate unequal risks and resources. By producing high-quality research and engaging students and scholars across disciplines, the pillar deepens understanding of the social forces that shape health disparities and contributes to broader efforts to achieve health equity and improve population health.
Mass incarceration has reshaped the social, economic, and political fabric of the United States. Led by Professor Christopher Wildeman, the Carceral Justice pillar advances rigorous, evidence-based research on how the criminal legal system produces and deepens social inequalities. Its work examines the far-reaching effects of incarceration on individuals, families, and entire communities, illuminating how carceral policies and practices reverberate across generations.
This pillar investigates the mechanisms through which the carceral state structures life chances and social institutions, highlighting the cumulative and often hidden ways these systems shape opportunity and wellbeing. Through this research and related educational efforts, the pillar strengthens the scholarly foundation needed to understand and address the inequities arising from criminal legal involvement.
Training the Next Generation of Scholars
The Cook Center fosters the development of emerging scholars through a robust set of co-curricular opportunities. These include mentored research apprenticeships and summer research internships that immerse students in ongoing projects connected to our research pillars. Complementing these experiences are curricular offerings such as courses taught by Cook Center Faculty Fellows through Duke’s partnership with the National Education Opportunity Network (NEON), which provides college-credit–bearing courses to students in Title I high schools. Together, these programs—supported by structured mentorship and fellowship opportunities—equip the next generation of researchers with the skills, guidance, and intellectual community needed to pursue impactful work on inequality.
Public Policy Engagement
Bridging research and practice is central to the Center’s mission. Through partnerships with policymakers, practitioners, and community organizations, we translate the best available evidence into insights that can inform policy decisions and shape public discourse on the drivers of inequality.
Data Science and Methodological Innovation
Addressing complex social problems requires innovative tools. The Center advances cutting-edge quantitative and qualitative methods, develops new data resources, and supports methodological training that strengthens the scientific study of social and economic inequality.
Other Features of the Center and Opportunities
- Seed grants to support interdisciplinary, multi-career-stage research teams involving faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and students. Seed grant proposals will be solicited across the Center’s core pillars. These awards will catalyze research that advances actionable knowledge and strengthens Duke’s capacity to partner with communities across the Carolinas and beyond. Requests for funding will be announced in early 2026.
- Mentoring pipelines through multi-career-stage fellows programs and internships. Calls for applications will be announced in early 2026.
- Strategic interdisciplinary partnerships between the Cook Center and Duke schools, departments, institutes, and centers, as well as local organizations. Partnerships will include co-sponsored research, training programs, mini-conferences, colloquia, workshops, and community events to enrich programming, extend dialogue, spark collaboration, and strengthen pursuit of external funding. The Cook Center will also build community partnerships through Duke’s Center for Community Engaged Scholarship.
NASEM Report on Economic and Social Mobility
Tyson Brown co-authored a report for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM)— Economic and Social Mobility: New Directions for Data, Research, and Policy—that provides a forward-looking framework for strengthening the nation’s data, research, and policy infrastructure to advance economic and social mobility, a core dimension of the Cook Center’s mission.