Faculty Spotlight: William Darity, Jr. on Stratification Economics and Leadership at Duke and Beyond

22 June 2015 9:27AM

Why are some people rich and others poor? Why are some places affluent while others not? These are the questions that first motivated Professor William Darity, Jr. to study economics.

“As an undergraduate, I decided to study economics because I assumed it was the discipline that would offer explanations for understanding poverty and inequality. I realized quickly that I was very dissatisfied with the standard account economics offered for poverty and inequality, and, with the hubris of youth, I decided to become an economist to transform the field's approach to these issues,” Darity said. “Eventually, I became able to identify a unifying theme in all of my work that might provide an alternative approach via a focus on economic disparities between persons, groups, and regions and the structure of social hierarchy. That led me to label my area of specialization as ‘stratification economics.’”

Stratification economics is front and center in the latest issue of The Review of Black Political Economy, which this month focuses on the emerging sub-field. Darity co-edited the special edition of the journal and also co-wrote the opening article titled, “A Tour de Force in Understanding Intergroup Inequality: An Introduction to Stratification Economics.”

Darity is credited with first naming the sub-field in a keynote address given in 2005. He also has been recognized for his research contributions, having published in journals in economics as well as anthropology, Asian studies, ethnic studies, history, public health, law, and sociology. Darity, who has appointments in the Sanford School of Public Policy, the Department of African and African American Studies, and the Department of Economics said an interdisciplinary background is essential to pursuing the new area of specialization, because it integrates economics with psychology and sociology.

Darity brings a unique perspective to his research, thanks to an eye-opening upbringing in the Middle East and North Carolina. “From an early point in my life, I was very aware of and concerned about the nature of social inequality, both in general and between groups,” he said. Growing up, Darity travelled with his father to the Middle East, where he saw concentrated poverty and blatantly visible signs of inequality in every day life. When visiting family in North Carolina, he experienced firsthand the impact of Jim Crow laws.

“Being a person of color has made me especially sensitive to what I view as wholly unsatisfactory explanations for the persistence of intergroup inequality that highlight ostensible defects or deficiencies on the part of the dispossessed group.”

In addition to his role as an academic, Darity has sought to bring about change through leadership positions at Duke and beyond. He currently serves as director of Duke's new Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity. When asked what motivates him to get involved, he attributed it to three “desires”: “to improve our understanding of social inequality; to design new and effective policies to eliminate social inequalities; and, to promote the demographic transformation of my discipline and others to become more inclusive and less exclusive.”

Most recently, Darity was selected to serve as president-elect of the Association of Black Sociologists (ABS), and he is currently in the process of organizing the 2015 ABS conference, “Re-Positioning Race Through Prophetic Research, Teaching, and Service,” which will take place August 20-22 in Chicago, Ill. He will begin his yearlong term as president at the end of the conference. In this role, Darity said he hopes to “develop a mentoring program for junior faculty in sociology from underrepresented groups,” as well as “open wider conversations between economists and sociologists to forge collaborative studies on race and inequality.”

Darity also has served as president of the Southern Economic Association and the National Economic Association.

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