A renowned professor emeritus of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, was killed in a hit-and-run accident in Oakland, police confirmed Wednesday.
Michael Burawoy, 77, died while crossing a street near Oakland’s Lake Merritt shortly after 7 p.m. Monday, police said. The driver of the SUV that struck him fled the scene and has yet to be found.
Tributes to Burawoy poured in Wednesday, with colleagues and friends recalling him fondly as a groundbreaking sociologist and tireless advocate for his students.
Raka Ray, the dean of social sciences at Berkeley, said in a statement to HuffPost that she was “reeling” from the news about Burawoy, who mentored her when she arrived at the university as an assistant professor. She called his death an “unimaginable loss.”
“Michael dedicated 47 years of his life to Berkeley, contributing immeasurably to the discipline, transforming the fields of labor, ethnography and theory. He was past president of the American Sociological Association and the International Sociological Association,” she said.
“His greatest legacy, though, went far beyond the many books and articles he published or prestigious awards he received ― it was in the people whose lives he changed. He was an extraordinary teacher, who mentored and inspired thousands of students, changing their lives with his fierce intellect and kindness.”
The European Sociological Association memorialized Burawoy as “the father of Public Sociology and a sociologist of immense integrity, passion, kindness, and intellectual rigor.” The American Sociological Association, which he once led, said its membership “mourns the sudden loss.”
The International Sociological Association, another group he once led, called his loss “immeasurable.”
“His boundless energy, commitment to justice, and unwavering belief in sociology’s power to transform the world will continue to inspire us,” the organization wrote in a social media post. “His leadership and passion shaped ISA and left a lasting impact on the global sociological community.”
As a prominent sociologist, Burawoy wrote or co-authored a dozen books, including “Manufacturing Consent: Changes in the Labor Process Under Monopoly Capitalism” in 1979. He studied industrial workplaces in Zambia, Russia, Hungary and Chicago early in his career before pivoting to observe the academic workplace.
He was a vocal advocate of Palestinian freedom and said he’d observed a “growing erosion of academic freedom in Israel,” where “universities are weaponized by the state.”
Berkeley made him a professor emeritus upon his retirement in 2023 and established an endowment In his name.
Traffic deaths, like that of Burawoy, are not uncommon in the area. Last year, the city of Oakland agreed to pay out $3 million in settlements to the families of three people killed in traffic accidents.
Among the fatalities was 41-year-old Dmitry Putilov, who was biking with his two young children when a driver that had run a red light slammed into him, killing him, and then fled. Putilov’s family filed a lawsuit against the city claiming that dangerous road conditions ― including a lack of speed bumps, poor lighting and other preventable hazards ― contributed to his death. The family is set to receive $2.4 million from the city.
In neighboring San Francisco, at least 24 pedestrians were killed last year, up from 18 in 2023, the advocacy group Walk SF reported.
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“This is the highest number of pedestrian deaths in a decade in San Francisco, surpassing 2014,” the group said. “There have now been 24 traffic-related pedestrian deaths in San Francisco in 2024, approximately 70% of total traffic-related fatalities are pedestrians. Citywide, an average of 30 people are killed and more than 500 severely injured each year on San Francisco streets.”
Among the San Francisco deaths last year were a 3-month-old and 2-year-old killed alongside their parents in March.