For Dylan Tuchman, the path to law school felt almost inevitable, but not in the way one might expect. With a father and sister already in the legal field, the profession was indeed familiar territory. But her true motivation was sparked by an early love of history and focus on children’s rights.
“I always loved learning about the history of law in high school,” she recalls. “It just made sense to me. I’ve always been more interested in reading and writing than in hard sciences or math, and my history concentration in law and governance let me dive deeper into the things I care about.”
This weekend, Tuchman is one of three students graduating with a minor in Inequality Studies–a program of study that complements Tuchman’s major in History with a concentration in Law and Governance, and her Certificate in Child Policy Research.
Tuchman presenting in the How to Study Inequality methods course, Fall 2023
Her academic journey, she says, helped her better understand how the past shaped today’s legal and social structures. From when she first set foot on campus, she gravitated toward courses that unpacked inequality. In pursuing the certificate in Child Policy Research, she found herself in the minor’s methods course with Inequality Studies Minor Director and Cook Center Senior Research Associate Dr. Adam Hollowell. “I took one of the introductory inequality classes as part of the certificate requirements, and I really liked it,” Tuchman says. “My first class was with Dr. Hollowell, who I now have again. His teaching style is so interactive and engaging, I knew I wanted to take more courses.”
With every course, she was able to zero in on themes of inequality related to children, particularly those in low-income or marginalized communities. “It’s always fascinated me how much childhood experience, especially for kids in low-income or historically marginalized groups, shapes their future,” she says, highlighting how the flexibility of the minor enabled her to pursue these interests through research projects and remain excited about the work.
Tuchman ’25 presenting her research poster “Assessing Equity in School Mental Health Frameworks” at the 2025 GIRI Capstone
A pivotal moment came as she took the Global Inequality Research Initiative (GIRI) Seminar on Disability Justice this spring. “I didn’t know anything about disability justice going into the class. Learning about programs, like Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), and seeing how policies that are supposed to help people often fall short was eye-opening,” she says. “It really made me think about how important it is to look beyond what policies claim to do and dig into their real-world impacts.”
Her capstone project explored socio-emotional learning in Durham Public Schools, comparing district resources to the suggested practices for low-income and historically marginalized students. “I went in thinking I’d find mostly problems,” she says, “but there was actually a lot of alignment with what the literature recommends.” The research she was able to complete built on her previous projects on child advocacy, including her senior thesis, “Exclusion through the “Normal Child” and “Natural Family,” which examined the 1909 White House Conference on the Care of Dependent Children.
The conference was a pivotal moment in U.S. child welfare policy. “What stood out to me was how the entire conversation centered on white children, even though they never explicitly said it,” Tuchman says. “They operated on an unspoken assumption of what a ‘normal child’ was, which excluded so many others.”
Such a discovery is consistent with a part of the minor that Tuchman finds valuable-the program allows students to not only understand inequality, but also to interrogate it historically and structurally. “This goes back so much further than people think,” Tuchman says. “These structures were embedded in policy a hundred years ago, and we’re still building on top of them.”
Beyond the classroom, Tuchman has participated in many leadership roles and legal internships. She has served as Publisher and Editor of the Duke Undergraduate Law Review, was an Executive Leader for Pancakes for Parkinson’s (P4P) and worked as a Research Scholar with Duke’s Holocaust Speakers Bureau. She also completed a legislative internship with the U.S. Coast Guard, a research and legal internship with Tech Law SF Group and Parrot Analytics and worked as a Literacy Specialist with the Family Service Society of Yonkers.
Dylan Tuchman ’25 receiving Senior Gift at Global Inequality Research Initiative Capstone
Looking back, Tuchman says one of the most valuable lessons from her time in the Inequality Studies minor was understanding how to think critically and communicate clearly. “Dr. Hollowell has us lead class discussions and break down every word to make sure we’re communicating in a way that anyone can understand,” she says. “It’s helped me immensely, especially as I think about going into public interest law. I’ve learned to ask: what does this really mean, and who am I trying to reach?”
After graduating from Duke, Tuchman will attend NYU Law School, where she plans to pursue child advocacy and justice reform.
Before that, though, she has a parting wish for future students in the Inequality Studies minor: “Keep asking what’s not being said. Learn how to really read policy, history, and institutions. And, feel empowered to do something about it.”
“Everything we see today is built on what came before,” Tuchman says. “If we don’t understand that history of where these systems came from we’re not going to be able to make real progress. You have to look back to move forward.”
