PUBPOL-435
GLOBAL INEQUALITY RESEARCH
Not in Fall 2026
Term
Instructor
Overview
Feedback is mostly positive. The strongest signal is that the readings, films, or examples carry real weight. Best for students who will engage with the materials instead of skimming everything.
DepartmentPPS
Terms offeredFall
Typical enrollment12–12
Semesters of data1
14
Responses
24
Enrollment
58%
Response Rate
Evaluation Scores
Overall quality
Teaching, content, and experience combined.
4.4
Intellectually stimulating
Challenges students to think deeply.
4.6
Instructor effectiveness
Explains concepts and facilitates learning.
4.6
Difficulty
Higher means harder.
3.4
Feedback Analysis
Feedback Analysismedium
Analysis based on student evaluations
Based on 16 comments across 2 sections
Feedback is mostly positive. The strongest signal is that the readings, films, or examples carry real weight. Best for students who will engage with the materials instead of skimming everything.
Student Reports
How hard is the A?
A is doable but not automatic
The signal here is more do-the-work-and-you-should-be-fine than easy-A chatter. Students do not describe the A as automatic, but the evidence also does not paint grading as punishing.
Homework Load
Moderate homework load
Homework load looks moderate. The recurring signal is steady weekly work, but not a course that turns every assignment into a grind.
Lecture Load
Lighter lecture burden
Student comments describe this as more discussion-, seminar-, or workshop-driven than lecture-dependent. The lecture burden itself does not sound like the main source of friction.
Strengths
• Readings, films, or outside materials come up repeatedly as a real strength rather than filler.
• Discussion is a clear strength; students repeatedly describe the class conversation as engaging and useful.
• Students repeatedly say the course teaches something concrete, whether that is content mastery, research skill, or a strong foundation.
Tradeoffs
• There is no single dominant complaint theme, but the feedback is not uniformly glowing either.
Best fit for
Best for students who will engage with the materials instead of skimming everything.
Student Responses
Reading carework literature critically, situating interdisciplinary social science literature, and giving meaningful peer review. Dr. Olcott and Dr. Darity are incredible educators-- two of the finest I have had the privilege of knowing at Duke.
Fall 2025 · Darity, William
1. Learning the structure of academic journal writing 2. How to conduct primary research 3. Working collaboratively on a big paper
Fall 2025 · Darity, William
1. The importance of demonstrating novelty of research and how to do this 2. How to read research in a thoughtful way and ask questions about what I am reading 3. How to come up with a research question that is answerable and new to a field 4. Care economy, feminist economics, and stratification economics
Fall 2025 · Darity, William
I learned how to write formal, researched writing in a discipline I had never written in before. I learned more about the care economy and what this looks like on the global scale, hearing from diverse perspectives both in the class and in our readings.
Fall 2025 · Darity, William
1. reading/annotation 2. academic writing skills 3. discussion
Fall 2025 · Darity, William
Rating History
Rating history
Error bars show \u00B11 std dev
| Term | Instructor | Overall | Difficulty | Hrs/wk | Enrolled |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall 2025 | Darity, William 3.6Rate My ProfessorsQuality3.6Difficulty3.3Would retake33%Based on 6 ratingsClick to view on RMP → | 4.4 | 3.4 | — | 24 |
Instructor
Also teaches
PUBPOL-645 GLOBAL INEQUALITY RESEARCH3.5