Supporting interdisciplinary research that deepens understanding of inequality and advances pathways toward greater equity

Advancing Research

We foster rigorous, collaborative and policy-relevant scholarship across three core research pillars. Each pillar is led by a Faculty Director and organizes collaborative activities such as working groups, public colloquia and workshops involving faculty and students at all stages.

Research Pillars

Examines how social, economic and environmental conditions shape health across the life course.

Research explores how factors such as chronic stress, discrimination, environmental exposures and the criminal legal system create unequal risks and resources, informing efforts to reduce health disparities, advance health equity and improve population health.

Health Equity Research

Examines how schools, labor markets, housing and public policy shape access to quality education, stable employment and economic security.

Research in this pillar explores why disparities persist, how unequal conditions accumulate across the life course and which policies and interventions can expand opportunity, mobility and wellbeing for individuals, families and communities.

Educational & Economic Opportunity Research

Examines how the criminal legal system shapes social inequality, opportunity and wellbeing.

Research explores the far-reaching effects of incarceration on individuals, families and communities, revealing how carceral policies and practices structure life chances, influence social institutions and create inequities that can persist across generations.

Carceral Justice Research

Cross-Cutting Approaches

Across all three pillars, research teams draw on shared approaches that integrate systems thinking, methodological innovation and training to reveal connections, deepen understanding and generate knowledge that advances social justice and meaningful change.

Training the Next Generation of Scholars

Vertically integrated teams provide emerging scholars with interdisciplinary training, mentorship and research experience to develop the skills and perspectives needed to address pressing social issues.

Systems Thinking and Analysis

Teams examine how systems across key domains of society, such as education, the economy, health, housing, politics and the criminal-legal system, shape opportunities and outcomes, helping to identify the structures and processes that produce inequality and pathways toward lasting change.

Data Science and Methodological Innovation

Teams use innovative data, methods and analytical approaches to uncover patterns, deepen understanding of complex social challenges, generate rigorous evidence and advance new approaches to research.

Research Pillar Working Groups

Pillar Working Groups bring together faculty, staff, and students from across Duke to exchange ideas, foster interdisciplinary collaboration and cultivate new opportunities for equity-focused research. Organized around the Center’s three research pillars, the groups create connections across disciplines and help generate new questions, projects and partnerships. Check out each pillar for more details.

Funding Research

The Cook Center provides seed grants to support interdisciplinary, multi-career-stage research teams involving faculty, postdoctoral fellows and students on projects that deepen understanding of the causes, consequences and potential solutions to inequality across social, economic, political, carceral and health-related domains. Requests for proposals will be solicited across the Center’s core pillars: educational and economic opportunity, health equity and carceral justice.

Publications

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