Dr. Nikhil Deb

Dr. Deb's CV

• Ph.D., Sociology, University of Tennessee
• M.A., Sociology, Ohio University
• M.S.S., Sociology, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Bangladesh

Teaching and Research Interests

• Political economy,
• the environment,
• development/poverty,
• theory,
• global South,
• global inequality and racism,
• comparative sociology

Biography

Nikhil Deb is Assistant Professor of Sociology in the Department of Political Science and Sociology at Murray State University. He previously served as Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST), Bangladesh. He also held a full-time lecturer position at the University of Tennessee, before joining Murray State University in 2020.

His research broadly focuses on how economic activities, neoliberal pursuits in particular, typically favor some human groups at the expense of other existing or future human groups and the environment. With this focus, he researches the effects of and resistance to neoliberal development undertakings in India and Bangladesh. He is also expanding his geographic focus through cross-national comparisons. Recently, he became interested in examining the ways in which the global pandemic has exacerbated social, environmental, and health inequalities around the world. 

His research has been funded by multiple grants, including the Society for the Study of Social Problems' Racial Minority Fellowship. His research appeared in sociology and interdisciplinary outlets, such as Social Problems (forthcoming), Critical Sociology, and Routledge International Handbook of Green Criminology. He serves as reviewer for various journals and holds many leadership positions in national and local sociological associations. 

Courses Taught

• SOC 133 Introduction to Sociology
• HON 133 Honors Seminar in Sociology
• SOC 300 Social Theory
• SOC 360 Research Methods
• SOC 455 Environmental Sociology 

Selected Publications

• Deb, Nikhil. 2021/forthcoming. Slow Violence and the Gas Peddit in Neoliberal India. Social Problems. 
• Deb, Nikhil. 2020. “Law and Corporate Malfeasance in Neoliberal India.” Critical Sociology 46(7-8): 1157-1171.
• Deb, Nikhil. 2020. “Corporate Capitalism, Environmental Damage, and the Rule of Law: The Magurchara Gas Explosion in Bangladesh.” Pp. 367-381 in the Routledge International Handbook of Green Criminology, edited by Nigel South and Avi Brisman. London: Routledge. 
• Deb, Nikhil and Maya Rao. 2020. “The Pandemic and the Invisible Poor of the Global South: Slum Dwellers in Mumbai, India, and Dhaka, Bangladesh.” Pp. 51-60 in Social Problems in the Age of COVID-19: Global Perspectives, edited by Glenn Muschert et al. Bristol, UK: Policy Press. 
• Deb, Nikhil. 2018. “The Fukushima Disaster and the Framing of Nuclear Energy in India.” Perspectives on Global Development and Technology 17(4):473-495.