Inequality studies minor potentially in the works as faculty approve proposal to create it

Duke Chronicle

By Chris Kuo

September 25, 2020

Good news for history buffs: A proposal for a new history minor has passed another hurdle to becoming part of the Trinity curriculum.

The Arts and Sciences Council voted Thursday to approve a proposal to create the new minor: inequality studies. The minor, intended to be a “synergy” between the history department and the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity, would include three core courses from the Cook Center and three from the history department, said Professor of History Malachi Hacohen, one of the proposal’s sponsors.

“The Cook Center represents an exceptional combination of resources in inequality studies… There are a few other places where you have those sources, and the history department is only too happy to have this group of experts come and work with us,” Hacohen said.

The courses that originate from the history department would be specifically labeled by the director of undergraduate studies of history as having an inequality studies theme, explained Adam Hollowell, adjunct instructor of education at the Sanford School of Public Policy and senior research associate at the Cook Center, who is the proposal’s other sponsor.