Tukufu Zuberi Expands the Role of the Public Intellectual

Whether he’s in a college classroom, on the set of a TV or film production, or meeting with an African head of state, Tukufu Zuberi, Lasry Family Professor of Race Relations, professor of sociology, and professor of Africana studies, is always teaching.

A frequent media commentator, he regularly appears on television and radio news programs. Recently he was a guest on the Tavis Smiley show on PBS. He is the author of numerous books and publications on race and African Diaspora populations, including the just-released book African Independence, the companion text to his 2013 documentary by the same name. The film—his first—has won several awards including Best Director, Best African Film, and Best Documentary at the San Diego Black Film Festival and Best Director at The People’s Film Festival.

In addition, in 2013 he curated two major Africa-related exhibitions, “Tides of Freedom: African Presence on the Delaware,” at the Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia and “Black Bodies in Propaganda: The Art of the War Poster” at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

“My job as a professor is to profess the information that will give people the knowledge they need to change the world they live in,“ Zuberi says. “I’m a critical sociologist because I believe that societies up until this point have hinged on relationships of exchange, and when those relationships are unequal, it results in a bad situation for the person on the less-than-equal side.”

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