Currently a Research Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley,
Sukari received her B.A. in Sociology from the University of California,
Berkeley, and her M.A. and Ph.D in Sociology from the University of
Chicago. Though trained in one of the bastions of academic rigor,
Sukari believes that contemporary academics have a responsibility to be
activist in nature around critical issues of the day. Academics should
not be content in pursuing abstract issues that are not related to
social transformation. Instead, academics should feel obligated to use
their skills to promote change.

As such, her work as an academic has been complimented by her life as an
activist for social justice. In studying the gentrification of
neighborhoods on Chicago’s west and south sides, she became an activist
for housing rights and against the destruction and wholesale corporate
development of several Black neighborhoods. Her recent analysis of the
relationship between nutrition-related disease and death in the San
Francisco Bay Area and the location of grocery stores and fast food
restaurants, led to Sukari’s current efforts working with farmers,
non-profit organizations and schools to bring healthy food to low-income
neighborhoods in Oakland, CA.

Though wide-ranging in scope, all of Sukari’s work is grounded in the
need to reveal various phenomena that require illumination. In light
of the upcoming milestones for both Cuba and Hawaii, it is her hope that
this project will add to what is sure to be a fascinating public dialog
around these upcoming anniversaries.