On October 28, join us for “From Understanding Inequality to Reducing Inequality,” a virtual forum co-sponsored by the Institute of Human Development and Social Change at New York University, the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality at the CUNY Graduate Center, the Center for the Study of Wealth and Inequality at Columbia University, and the William T. Grant Foundation, on the potential of research to help build and strengthen efforts to address inequality and delineate pathways through which research may lead to large-scale social change.

Citing examples of recently-funded studies that aim to address systemic roots of inequality, Adam Gamoran calls on more researchers to look beyond individual programs and policies in their research: “If we wish to reduce inequality, it will not be enough to identify programs that compensate for built-in obstacles—we need to overturn the obstacles from the start.”

With this new grant to the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University, a team led by William A. Darity Jr. will investigate the effects of different configurations of Black reparations, gauging how these plans would shape the well-being of Black children, their families, and the broader economy.

What does it mean to study race, and how does the conceptualization of racial inequality undergird research on responses to inequality more broadly?

A new special collection of Socius, edited by Adam Gamoran, considers the contributions of sociology and the social sciences broadly, and points toward the potential for our research to do more to advance change and illuminate ways to respond to the challenge of inequality.