Welcome to the MeghanBPhD Newsletter

Hi! My name is Meghan Burke, and I earned my PhD in sociology from Loyola University Chicago. I am the author of three books and dozens of academic articles on whiteness and contemporary racism. My research on contemporary racism was also featured during the racial uprisings, in the summer of 2020, in O Magazine. I currently work as a principal qualitative and ethnographic customer insights (CX) researcher for an insurance company*, helping to inform business strategy by leveraging my social science research skills and DEI subject matter expertise. 

Before this, I worked as a Director-level Business Unit Advisor on the DEI Strategy team a major global media company, where I drove enterprise-wide initiatives in the Workforce and Production branches of the business (to over 5,000 employees) and helped to consult, diagnose challenges, and craft meaningful interventions to support equity and inclusion in specific business areas, while actively steering Learning & Development efforts and designing new company initiatives to drive equity and inclusion.

Prior to moving into private industry, I spent 15+ years in higher education as a tenured Full Professor and Department Chair and a nationally-recognized expert on contemporary racism –winning teaching, research, advising, and DEI awards. I have given talks and workshops about contemporary racism, whiteness, diversity in canons and curricula, racism across the political spectrum, and more, and co-created and program-managed innovative efforts targeting ally skill development and systems-level change.  I’m eager to share what I’ve learned, and to continue learning alongside you. 

*Toward this end, it’s important to note that any and all perspectives shared in this newsletter are my own, and do not reflect those of my current or any previous employers.