Dr. Kushan Dasgupta is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology. He uses qualitative methods to study how social movements and civic groups challenge and/or support the legitimacy of science and medicine. His current research analyzes how the perennial “nature versus nurture” debates are re-articulated by laypersons on digital media venues.

More broadly, he is interested in how non-experts build credibility to speak on technical/scientific issues that affect the public. Research in this area has focused on bone marrow donation campaigns among racial minorities as well as the role of legal and economics research in labor campaigns.

Prior to arriving at the University of Louisville, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute for Society and Genetics at University of California-Los Angeles. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Southern California.