Quantifying Race: On Methods for Analyzing Social Inequality

Racial inequality is a social experience. Our interest in methodology centers on how to quantitatively model this concept. We each entered the academy with a love for mathematics and an aim to model patterns in the physical world. Though we both lost interest in the physical sciences early in undergraduate school, we similarly turned our attention to studying the social world, particularly social inequality. Our paths crossed when Abigail began graduate studies at Indiana University. At that time, we began an ongoing discussion about how to quantitatively model racial inequality. Our discussion centered on the question: “How can we model the complex, multi-level patterns that constitute the social experience of race and reveal the policy mechanisms needed to undermine racial inequality?”