William "Sandy" Darity, Jr., teaches students in a public policy seminar. Photo credit: Les Todd

A fan of science fiction and speculative fiction, Duke public policy professor William "Sandy" Darity, Jr. calls himself "an economist with weird tastes."

Today, that love of stories helps Darity think creatively about his teaching and research, prompting him to examine sociological theories, some of which will be presented at an April 15 conference (see sidebar).

"Economists, especially folks who dabble in economic history, are always asking, well, what would have happened if such-and-such an event had taken place or not taken place? Speculative fiction is the world of the counter factual, so that makes it interesting," Darity said.

Working in the field of stratification economics, Darity has applied concepts of identity drawn from sociology to traditional economic analysis. His published work examines questions such as the impact of the Jim Crow period on racial wealth differentials, the case for reparations for African Americans, and discrimination based on phenotype and skin color. In some of this research Darity draws parallels to works of fiction by African American writers such as Toni Morrison, Chester Himes, and Zora Neale Hurston.

"There's been somewhat of a natural overlap for me between what's happening in the literary world and what I'm doing in the way of statistical investigations of the effects of skin shade on certain kinds of life outcomes, like labor market outcomes or marriage outcomes," Darity said.

Darity is teaching a class this semester with historian Thavolia Glymph and cultural anthropologist Bayo Holsey called "Monuments and Memory: Race and History." The three offer different perspectives on what is remembered throughout history and what remains forgotten. Students read fiction by William Styron and Tulani Davis alongside historical sources about Nat Turner, the Jim Crow South and Reconstruction. The course examines how people and events are memorialized, both in the literal and literary senses.

"How do we decide how to name buildings or parks? How do we decide which statuaries are put up, and statues of whom? How do we decide who gets represented as heroic, and who gets represented as demonic, and why, and how does that evolve?" asks Darity.

The class is similar to one Darity taught previously at UNC-Chapel Hill called, "The Economic and Social History of the Black Presence at the UNC," in which students unearthed forgotten facts about campus buildings.

"Individual students did a tremendous amount of work recovering lost memory, or ignored memory, and that got me focused on the question of what we forget and what we recall. UNC's campus is essentially a memorialization of the lost cause of the Confederacy, if you look at who the buildings are named for on the campus. I'm not of a mind to say that we should rename these places, but I think we have to continuously be aware of who these people were in the fullest sense," said Darity.