He cites his primary intellectual influences as Edward Shils and Morris Janowitz, founder of sociological studies of the military.

[2] In 2014, he received the Robin M. Williams, Jr. Award for Distinguished Contributions to Scholarship, Teaching and Service from the Peace, War, and Social Conflict section of the American Sociological Association.

He collaborated with David R. Segal on a four-volume anthology of primary source materials, documenting key themes in the development of military sociology from the early nineteenth century to the present.

The essay appears as an introduction to Burk's edited collection of Janowitz's papers published in the Heritage of Sociological Series of the University of Chicago Press.

[8] Burk also engaged in debates about the integration of race and gender minorities in the all-volunteer force, proposing a new approach for identifying institutional discrimination, which previous analyses omitted.