Transforming Research on Racial Equity into Action

A grant funds Duke faculty鈥檚 creative projects exploring how race shapes life

Duke student Ezra Belgrave, left, helps Durham high school students refine the circuitry of their high-tech handbags as part of the 鈥淚nspiring the Next Generation of STEM Learners鈥 research project. Photo by Stephen Schramm.
Duke student Ezra Belgrave, left, helps Durham high school students refine the circuitry of their high-tech handbags as part of the 鈥淚nspiring the Next Generation of STEM Learners鈥 research project. Photo by Stephen Schramm.

This story is part of the Working Toward Racial Justice series.

Duke student Ezra Belgrave held a blue handbag, her fingers following delicate metal wires laced across
the front.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a short-circuit here somewhere,鈥 Belgrave said, searching for why tiny lights on the bag designed by one of the Durham high school students in a summer learning program wouldn鈥檛 glow. 鈥淭his won鈥檛 be too hard to fix.鈥

Belgrave, a senior computer science major, was helping students at Hillside High School in Durham create handbags featuring circuits and lights as part of an early phase of a Duke research project, 鈥淚nspiring the Next Generation of STEM Learners.鈥

Working Toward Racial Justice series graphic by Zaire McPhearson, an instructor in the Duke Department of Art, Art History & Visual Studies.

Led by Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science Professor of the Practice Shaundra Daily, the project partners with local youth enrichment program to let Duke undergraduates test innovative ways to nurture curiosity about science and technology in middle and high school students from underrepresented minorities.

鈥淚t鈥檚 really rewarding,鈥 said Belgrave, who is Black and Latina. 鈥淚 see myself in these students. I love that they get to express their personality, their culture and things they like within their tech.鈥

As part of Duke鈥檚 , 鈥淚nspiring the Next Generation of STEM Learners鈥 is funded through a Duke grant program that dates to the university鈥檚 anti-racism commitment amid 2020鈥檚 nationwide awakening about systemic racism. The Duke Endowment provided 老牛影视 with $16 million for recruiting and retaining diverse faculty, creating courses and student research opportunities about race and inequality, and funding new faculty-led research projects exploring how racial and social inequality shapes life in Durham and North Carolina.

鈥淲e need to leverage the resources and expertise we have, not just on the basic research side, but also the applied side, where we try to use innovative research for the benefit of the community,鈥 said Vice Provost for Faculty dvancement Abbas Benmamoun.

In 2021, the first round of grants went to . Projects included collecting oral histories of environmental racism, sharing the stories of Durham鈥檚 Black burial grounds, and more. Last year, 18 projects were funded looking into how racial inequality manifests in areas such as North Carolina鈥檚 foster care system, jury pools, housing market and health care.

community-engaged research projects addressing educational inequality. 鈥淚nspiring the Next Generation of STEM Learners鈥 was one of seven projects chosen by representatives from , the , and the Durham community. 鈥淭he ideas our students will come up with will have a tie to the community and a social impact component,鈥 said Duke Research Scientist Alia Carter, who is helping oversee the project with Duke Associate in Research Sandra Roach. 鈥淚 want them to think of STEM as a superpower, and we鈥檙e using it to benefit the community.鈥

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