Kimberly Cecilia Burke is a doctoral student in UC Berkeley’s Department of Sociology. Her research interests include social stratification, intergroup dynamics, and state violence. Burke’s scholarship and activism are grounded in the theoretical and ethical frameworks of love, mutuality, and respect. Her dissertation examines conflict management strategies in interracial romantic partnerships and how those strategies are impacted by institutional violence.
Prior to starting her doctoral program, she applied her passion for issues of diversity and inclusion at the Center for Policing Equity (CPE), a research and action think tank aimed at reducing gender and racial inequalities in the context of policing. She collaborated with police trainers to develop and implement officer trainings aimed at disrupting bias, and translated these pedagogical insights into a book chapter on best practices for bias-intervention trainings. In the summer of 2017, she had the opportunity to teach leaders in criminal justice reform a new way to think about drivers of racial inequities in law enforcement as an invited speaker at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland.
Outside of her PhD program, Kimberly enjoys running, reading science fiction, particularly Afrofuturism, and spending time with her partner and their two cats.