kalfani ture

Kalfani N. Turè, PhD

  • Assistant Professor, Criminal Justice and African American Studies
Media Expertise:
  • Criminal Justice
  • Race
  • Social Justice
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Affiliated Programs

Education

  • Post Doctoral Certificate
    Yale University (CT)
  • Doctoral Degree
    American University (D.C.)
  • MA Degree
    Georgia State University (GA)
  • BA Degree
    Rutgers University (NJ)
  • Certification in Basic Law Enforcement
    Georgia P.O.S.T (GA)

About Me

I came to Widener University August 2023 after more than two decades between law enforcement and academic experience. While the continued calls for social justice, anti-racism, and meaningful police reform ring out across America, my sensible approach to improve police and community relations has positioned myself to emerge as one of the nation’s leading experts on policing. I, a Black man, former police officer and Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice & African & African American Studies in the Department of Criminal Justice here at Widener University, and a senior Fellow in the Urban Ethnography Project at Yale Universities, offer a unique prospective on matters of race, place and urban law enforcement. I have provided expertise and insight to national media outlets such as “The New York Times,” “USA Today” and the “Associated Press,” and have appeared live on MSNBC, NPR, and CNN to name a select few. A practicing urban ethnographer, I earned a postdoctoral certificate in Sociology from Yale University, a Ph.D. in Anthropology from American University, a master’s in Applied Anthropology from Georgia State University and a bachelor’s in African/African American Studies and Criminal Justice from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. In addition, I attained policing certifications at the municipal, county and state levels and worked as a police officer in metropolitan Atlanta.

Research Interests

  • Race, Place and Urban Crime
  • Law Enforcement & Urban Community Relations
  • Police Encounters of African American and Latino Males
  • Gentrification and Urban Redevelopment
  • Race and Ethnic Relations
  • Social Theory
  • Ethnographic Methods & Urban Ethnography

Publications

Baltimore and Beyond: Racialized Urban Ghettos, Violence and the Role of Anthropology. Transforming Anthropology Vol. 25. No. 1 (April 2017)

Professional Affiliations & Memberships

  • American Society of Criminology - Division of Critical Criminology
  • Division of People of Color and Crime
  • American Anthropological Association - Association of Black Anthropologists
  • Association for Political and Legal Anthropology
  • American Sociological Association
  • Justice Studies Association

In the Media