A group of Duke scholars are uniting across disciplines to investigate social inequality through the power of research.
The Duke Consortium on Social Equity brings together faculty from across the University to bridge academic research and real-life advocacy by growing relationships with practitioners engaged in social work. It entered a soft launch phase this July and is currently engaged in strategic planning, preparing to officially kick off research and teaching activities in March, said director William Darity, the Samuel DuBois Cook professor of public policy, African and African American Studies and economics, in an email Saturday.
“We hope that the findings generated from the studies undertaken by the scholars in the consortium can be used by practitioners seeking to expand fairness in opportunity and capability for people everywhere," Darity said.
Researchers in the consortium will study different types of inequality, he said, including disparities created by caste, race, ethnicity, religion and gender. Darity described the consortium as a collective comparing human disparity and deprivation across the United States and internationally.
After receiving a grant of $870,000 from the Ford Foundation, Darity said the consortium will use the grant to complete one of its first projects—a series of 600 face-to-face interviews to gain wealth information about specific racial and ethnic groups in Los Angeles.
The collective has also worked to forge a collaborative relationship with Paradigm Publishers to produce a book series on race, ethnicity and gender in politics and policy.
The consortium is using the months leading up to its launch to finish strategic planning. The group is currently working to hire a communications strategist to connect more fully with the campus and publicize its work. Securing funding from outside the University is also a priority, Darity said.
The consortium's research will span several fields: the social sciences, humanities, natural sciences and more. At the heart of the consortium are five centers, the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Gender in the Social Sciences; the Center for Arts, Digital Culture and Entrepreneurship; the Center for the Study of Genomics, Race, Identity and Difference; the Research Network on Racial and Ethnic Inequality Center; and the Global Inequality Research Initiative.
Darity explained that the study of inequality has been central to his academic work for decades now and said he is looking forward to collaborating with his peers.
Darity also noted the support of Laurie Patton, Dean of Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, saying she has been "instrumental" to getting the project off the ground.
"I am particularly excited by the role that comparative work across different cultural contexts will play in their research on inequality, whether it is in bioethics, media or public policy," Patton wrote in an email Sunday.
Students can be involved in the consortium as well, and Darity noted that some are already involved in seminars related to the initiative. Both graduate and undergraduate students will be able to work as teaching assistants with the consortium and participate directly in research projects. There are also tentative plans for a student-organized seminar and summer program studying social inequality in India.
The consortium will officially launch with a week of events beginning March 23, 2015.
“I have been thrilled by the opportunity to pursue that research program in collaboration with the remarkable group of scholars who are associated with the consortium," Darity wrote. “Ten years from now, I would hope that the Consortium would be the go-to site for research on inequality from a comparative, cross-national perspective."
A previous version of this article indicated that the consortium had completed its project of conducting 600 face-to-face interviews. The interviews have not been completed. The Chronicle regrets the error.
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