Dustin Kidd

Dustin Kidd is a Professor of Sociology at Temple University's College of Liberal Arts, where he also serves as Director of General Education in the Office of the Provost. His academic work focuses on stories and storytelling across various cultural forms including art, popular culture, social media, and activism, with particular attention to how issues of identity shape who gets to tell stories in American culture, especially regarding race, class, gender, sexuality, and disability.

His research interests span multiple interconnected fields:

• Popular Culture Studies, examining how media representations shape and reflect social identities
• Social Media and Digital Identity, investigating how individuals present themselves online
• Disability Studies, analyzing representation and accessibility in cultural production
• Art Sociology, exploring the relationship between artistic expression and social structures
• Media Studies, particularly how gatekeeping institutions influence cultural narratives

Kidd's scholarly work reveals consistent themes across his publications, showing an evolving focus from traditional media and popular culture toward digital platforms and their social implications. His early work examined Harry Potter's cultural significance and legislative impacts on artistic expression, while his more recent scholarship addresses social media's role in identity formation, digital communities, and contemporary cultural phenomena. His publications demonstrate expertise in analyzing how power structures operate through cultural production and consumption.

As an active public intellectual, Kidd has been featured in numerous media outlets including CNN, The New York Times, CBC Radio, and Business Insider, where he provides sociological perspectives on contemporary cultural phenomena. His commentary often addresses how social media platforms function beyond their intended purposes, as seen in his analysis of LinkedIn being used as an unexpected dating platform.

Kidd teaches across the sociology curriculum, offering both undergraduate and graduate courses including:

• Graduate Seminars: Teaching in Higher Education, Classical Sociological Theory, Contemporary Social Theory, Sociology of Culture, Gender and Sexuality Research Seminar
• Undergraduate Seminars: Sociology of Popular Culture, Social Entrepreneurship, Development of Sociological Thought, Intellectual Heritage I and II, Demystifying Technology, Ethnicity and the Immigrant Experience, Introduction to Sociology, Media Studies and Production