Education

Global Inequality Research Initiative (GIRI) Seminar

Program Description

The Global Inequality Research Initiative (GIRI) seminar is an interdisciplinary, vertically integrated research course that emphasizes a judicious application of mixed methods from the social sciences and humanities, including quantitative, qualitative, and archival research.

GIRI Spring 2025 | Disability Justice

Instructor: Adam Hollowell

Meeting Day, Time, & Location: Monday/Wednesday, 11:45am-1:00pm, Sanford 150

Description: Spring 2025 GIRI will explore the work of disabled activists for disability justice in global context. Presenting evidence of disability-based inequality from economics, sociology, disability studies, and beyond, the course will present a case for the inclusion of ableism alongside racism and misogyny in economic analysis of intergroup disparity. Across the semester we will consider the limitations of traditional economic and public policy analyses of disability-related inequality and explore emerging quantitative and qualitative intersectional research methods. Topics of study will span four key areas: employment, health, wealth, and education. The course will engage with Disability Justice and Stratification Economics, a book forthcoming in 2025 by Adam Hollowell and Keisha Bentley-Edwards.

This course is further enriched by the opportunity to participate in a vertically aligned research team. Together, students plan, conduct, and (aim to) publish their findings in a peer-reviewed journal, contributing not only to the academic discourse but also developing valuable research, teamwork, and communication skills.

View All Cook Center Courses

GIRI Spring 2025 | Inequality and Reparations

Instructor: William A. Darity, Jr. and Arko Dasgupta

Meeting Day, Time, & Location: Tuesdays, 11:45am-2:15pm, Reuben-Cooke Building 329

Description: Reparations typically have responded to atrocities inflicted upon a community or tribute extracted by a victorious nation from the losers in the aftermath of a war. Growing attention is being drawn to reparations as a redress mechanism for economic inequalities produced by historic and ongoing injustices. Analysis of the causes of and the magnitude of such disparities becomes a critical aspect of claims made for reparations on this basis. This semester, the Global Research Inequality seminar will explore multiple cases in which reparations have been paid and other cases in which there are active reparations demands, giving attention to the circumstances invoked for each claim. This includes those made by black American descendants of persons enslaved in the United States; Native Americans, Mexican Americans, and Japanese Americans; victims of the Holocaust in Germany; caste oppression in India, and South Africa’s “reconciliation” movement since the fall of apartheid.

View All Cook Center Courses

Program Description

Cross-listed in multiple departments, GIRI facilitates integrated study and research across fields of social, historical, and political inequality. The course, typically offered once each semester, invites students to produce a major paper that will qualify for submission to a refereed journal in the area relevant to the focus of the study. Past GIRI seminar themes have included reparations, genetics and neuroscience, racism in Europe, and social determinants of health.

Program Goals

The goal of the class is to navigate the students through a rigorous process that introduces them to the research process. This includes some exposure to qualitative and quantitative methodology. It introduces students to data gathering, cleaning, analysis, and presentation. When students complete the course, they should have a better understanding of inequalities and its connection to the course’s topic. An advanced undergraduate student or graduate student should gain value from this course.
In all Global Inequality Research Institute courses, the goal is to immerse students in open-ended research, only with the guidelines of exploring a component of the semester’s theme.
Students should not only be able to conduct research, but also share it. GIRI courses always conclude with a capstone conference, where students present their research in a poster or presentation format. The final component of sharing is the goal of having the research paper published in a Social Science journal.

Join the GIRI Alumni LinkedIn Group

Past GIRI Seminars & Events

Eco friendly law, politics and eco balance concept. 3d rendering of scale icon on fresh spring meadow with blue sky in background.

Fall 2024: Environmental Justice: Unearthing Disparities, Building Equity

In Fall 2024, the Global Inequality Research Initiative focused on “Environmental Justice”. The course explored the complex world of environmental justice, tracing its origins from a powerful social movement to a pivotal policy arena.

GIRI Spring 2024 banner with outlines of people in the background

Spring 2024: Gender and Development

In Spring 2024, the Global Inequality Research Initiative focused on “Gender and Development”. We examined how gender influences and is influenced by social and economic development processes.

Fall 2023: Digital Bias and Machine Learning

In the Fall 2023 iteration of GIRI, students learned about the role of digital automation in biased social systems and learned practical applications of machine-learning techniques for research.

Front cover of book "You mean it or you don't"

Spring 2023: James Baldwin and Global Inequality

Throughout the spring semester, GIRI students interrogated the life and work of James Baldwin as an entry point into deeper understanding of global inequality.

Front cover of book "the pandemic divide"

Fall 2022: The Pandemic Divide

The Pandemic Divide will explore inequalities through study of the recent Cook Center publication The Pandemic Divide: How COVID Increased Inequality in America.

cartoon black and white image of hands holding a microphone, CD, and paintbrush

Spring 2022: Music, Migration, and Social Revolution

Guest instructor: Quran Karriem is an experimental musician, installation artist and interface designer.

Fall 2021: The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre in Global Perspective

This class explored inequalities through study of the history of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.

Spring 2021: Athletes and Activism

Athletes and Activism will explore inequalities through study of the history of social protest in athletics and current protest movements in amateur and professional sports around the world.

Fall 2020: “Race and Social Crisis”

Race and Social Crisis explored inequalities in light of contemporary events, including—but not solely—the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing political resistance to anti-Black police violence.

Fall 2019: “Race, Gender, and Entrepreneurship

The goal of the class was to navigate the students through a rigorous process that introduces them to the research process.

ariel view looking down from the Eifel tower

Spring 2019: “Race and Racism in Europe”

The 2019 Spring GIRI seminar explored what humanities scholar David Theo Goldberg refers to as “racial Europeanization,” or how race and racism are framed as a problem everywhere but in Europe.

Fall 2018: “Examining Neuroscience, Genetics, and Inequality”

The 2018 Fall GIRI seminar explored controversial and important issues related to race, genetics and inequality, how they are studied, and whether (and how) such studies should inform medical practice, criminal and other legal actions, personal identity claims, health disparities, and social policy.

Spring 2018: “Reparations”

Racial reparations have been and continue to be one of the most explosive contemporary issues.

Fall 2017: “Examining Neuroscience, Genetics and Inequality

The 2017 Fall Global Inequality Research Institute (GIRI) Seminar Examining Neuroscience, Genetics and Inequality explored controversial and important issues related to race, genetics and inequality.

man smiles and looks into a crib with a pink blanket

Spring 2016: “Social Determinants of Health”

Featured speakers included Chandra Ford, Associate Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.

ariel image of men walking with their tall shadows cast beside them

Spring 2015: “Telling Identity Stories: Race, Class, and Psychology”

The capstone conference for the Global Inequality Research Initiative featured a keynote talk by Stephanie Rowley, a professor in the School of Education, the Department of Psychology and the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts at the University of Michigan

merlin_173278773_e47393b4-3db6-4bae-b312-b67f68d24dcc-superJumbo

Fall 2015: “The Human Development Index and Ethno-Racial Disparities”

In Fall 2015, the Global Inequality Research Initiative (GIRI) course focused on "The Human Development Index and Ethno-Racial Disparities". Throughout the semester, GIRI students examined the underlying theories, justifications, and assumptions of HDI and critically assess its usefulness as a tool for measuring inequality.

Dalit_Women's_Swabimaan_Self-Respect_Yatra_In_Kurukshetra

Spring 2014: “The Experiences of Dalits and Tribals in India and African Americans in the U.S.”

In Spring 2014, the Global Inequality Research Initiative (GIRI) course focused on “The Experiences of Dalits and Tribals in India and African Americans in the U.S.”. The course explored the nuanced commonalities of the lived experiences of Dalits and tribals in India with African-Americans in the USA.

Fall 2014: “Global Blackness”

In Fall 2014, the Global Inequality Research Initiative (GIRI) course focused on "Global Blackness". Throughout the semester, GIRI students explored the multifaceted experiences and issues related to Black identity and culture on a global scale.