Kimberly C. Burke, PhD

Sociologist of Race, Policing & Guns
Incoming Assistant Professor, Arizona State University (Aug 2026)

KIMBERLY C. BURKE CV

I am a Postdoctoral Fellow at the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center at Rutgers University and Incoming Assistant Professor in the Bringing Research and Innovation into the Debate on Guns in Society (BRIDGS) Initiative at the T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics at Arizona State University (starting August 2026). I earned my Ph.D. in Sociology from UC Berkeley in 2024.

As a scholar of race and criminal legal systems, I examine how legislative efforts to reduce gun violence reconstitute the carceral state along racial lines; how the promise of contemporary armed resistance struggles against the constraints of necropolitics; and how threats of armed state violence contribute to disparities in health and wellbeing.

Before graduate school, I served as an Associate Project Director at the Center for Policing Equity, helping to lead a $4.75 million DOJ grant to improve police-community relationships across six pilot cities.

I have a B.A. from Duke University and an M.A. in Women’s Studies from San Diego State University.

Academic Publications:

Peer Reviewed

  • Anestis, Michael D., Allison E. Bond, Kimberly C. Burke, Sultan Altikriti, and Daniel C. Semenza. 2026. “Changes in firearm intentions and behaviors after the 2024 United States presidential election.” Injury Epidemiology. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40621-026-00654-9
  • Burke, Kimberly C. 2025. “Loving in the Time of George Floyd: How Cultural Models Shape Interracial Couples’ Responses to Racialized Policing.” Social Problems. https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spaf039
  • Semenza, Daniel C., Jeremy Levine, Tanya Sharpe, Kimberly C. Burke, & Brielle Savage. 2025. “Racial Disparities in Victim Compensation among Homicide Survivors in the United States.” Race and Justice. https://doi.org/10.1177/21533687251388669
  • Semenza, Daniel C., Tara Warner, Samantha Francois, Kimberly C. Burke, & Michael D. Anestis. 2025. “The Salience of Social Support for Firearm Behaviors in the United States.” Injury Prevention. https://doi.org/10.1136/ip-2025-045819
  • Bond, Allison E., Taylor R. Rodriguez, Kimberly C. Burke, Sultan Altikriti, & Michael D. Anestis. 2025. Examining demographic characteristics of firearm owners currently engaged in mental health treatment. Journal of Clinical Psychology. http://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.70048
  • Semenza, Daniel C., Christopher Thomas, Richard Stansfield, David Johnson, Kimberly C. Burke, & Michael D. Anestis. 2025. “Local Homicides Increase Suicide in US Counties.” Social Science & Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118406
  • Semenza, Daniel C., Kimberly C. Burke, Devon Ziminski, Brielle Savage, Michael D. Anestis, and Richard Stansfield. 2025. “In-person and media gun violence exposure in the United States: prevalence and disparities in a nationally representative, cross-sectional sample of adults.” The Lancet Regional Health–Americas. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lana.2025.101101
  • Anestis, Michael D., Kimberly C. Burke, Sultan Altikriti, & Daniel C. Semenza. 2025. “Lifetime and Past-Year Defensive Gun Use.” JAMA Netw Open https://doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.0807
  • Anestis, Michael D., Kimberly C. Burke, Sultan Altikriti, & Daniel Semenza. “Lifetime and Past-Year Defensive Gun Use.” JAMA Netw Open https://doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.0807
  • Burke, Kimberly C. 2024.“Forceful De‑escalation and Organizational Inertia: Identifying Novel Justifications for Entrenched Police Violence.” Critical Criminology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10612-024-09797-x
  • Burke, Kimberly C. 2020. Democratic Policing and Officer Well-Being. Frontiers in Psychology, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00874

Invited Chapters, Book Reviews

  • Burke, Kimberly C. 2019. Implicit bias, officer wellness, and police training. In K. Papazoglou & D. Blumberg (Eds.), POWER: Police Officer Wellness, Ethics, and Resilience. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier, Inc.
  • Book Review: Nare, J., Burke K., Hastings, L., & Rothblum, E.D. (2009). Review of Transgendered Voices: Beyond Women and Men. Journal of Gay and Lesbian Mental Health, 14(2), 169-171.
  • Book Review: Burke, K., Franco, N.R., Bowman, K.B., & Rothblum, E.D. (2009). Review of The N Word: Who Can Say It. Who Shouldn’t. And Why. Journal of International Women’s Studies, 10(4),320-323.

Articles in Preparation

  • Burke, Kimberly C., Allison E. Bond, Michael D. Anestis, & Daniel C. Semenza. “Fear of Police Violence and Suicide Risk Among Black Americans.” Under review.
  • Semenza, Daniel C., Sultan Altikriti, Kimberly C. Burke, & Christopher Thomas. “How Gun Violence Exposure Shapes Racial Health Inequities among Adults in the United States.” Revise and resubmit.

Public Scholarship & Media

“Dualistic thinking sets up a hierarchy that privileges one aspect of our identity over another, creating false dichotomies between mind and body, reason and emotion, culture and nature, and other arbitrary divisions that limit our understanding of the world and ourselves.”

— Gloria Anzaldúa