Welcome Professor Sundstrom, Inaugural King-Jones Faculty Fellow

We are honored to extend a heartfelt welcome to Ronald Sundstrom, the inaugural King-Jones Faculty Fellow. In partnership with the Institute for Nonviolence and Social Justice (INSJ), the King-Jones Fellowship focuses on a faculty member whose work and research resonate with the values of the INSJ. Ronald also serves as a professor of Philosophy at USF, as well as a member of the USF’s African American Studies. Through this collaboration, the INSJ recognizes the importance of scholarship, teaching, and public engagement that speaks to strengthen the pursuit of human equity and dignity across San Francisco and beyond. 

As the inaugural King-Jones Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Nonviolence and
Social Justice (INSJ), I welcome, with gratitude and excitement, the opportunity
to work with the Leo T. McCarthy Center to do my part in furthering the mission
of both organizations. The importance of that mission is glaringly clear in our day
and time, as our university community, along with the city of San Francisco,
the state of California, and the nation face current social and political challenges
that are both unsettling and threatening.

The INSJ began at USF in 2018 and was cofounded by Dr. Clarence B. Jones
and Jonathan D. Greenberg. Their mission was to “disseminate the teachings
and strategies of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi in response to
the moral emergencies of the 21st century.” During the fall semester of this year,
after years of service to the USF community, Johnathan announced he was
retiring from the institute, and three fellowships would be created to carry out
INSJ’s mission, and the King-Jones Faculty Fellowship, is one of them.

It is an honor to carry on Jonathan’s work and, in collaboration with the
McCarthy Center and the mission of the INSJ. I am a professor of philosophy, and I
have devoted my career to thinking, writing, and teaching about the values I
learned as a youth to cherish the lessons of King and others who stood for
moral personhood, liberty, equality, and justice.

As the King-Jones Faculty Fellow at USF, I take it as my mission to uphold and
promote Martin Luther King Jr.’s moral, political, philosophical, and theological
legacy. I aim to highlight its connections with past abolitionists, civil rights, and
decolonization movements, as well as their living links to current efforts to
realize what King envisioned as the beloved community.