Mr. Burkat received his Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology & Sociology and French, as well as a minor in Mandarin Chinese from Lafayette College. Furthermore, he received his Master of Arts in the Social Sciences from the University of Chicago, focusing on Sociocultural Anthropology. During his undergraduate studies at Lafayette College, Mr. Burkat had the opportunity to work on several anthropological/sociological inquiries, including, but not limited to racial formations of Muslims in 21st century Denmark; social memories of Danish Jews during World War II; media constructions of women in American crime dramas; ethnographic research of Easton, Pennsylvania’s long-lost “Syrian Town”; sociolinguistic identities of Senegalese diaspora members in the United States.
While at the University of Chicago, Mr. Burkat completed specialized work on West African ethnographies (primarily those based in the People’s Republic of China), focusing on linguistic analyses, migration studies, and economic/human development investigations. In his Master’s thesis, he explored the effects of Westernized neoliberalism on racial constructions of African migrant traders and Chinese internal migrants living in various Chinese cities (e.g., Guangzhou; Hong Kong; Shanghai; Yiwu).
Currently, he works as a high school French teacher in New Jersey, as well as an adjunct instructor of Sociology at Centenary University.