Prof Isak Ladegaard
Assistant Professor
9.15, 9/F., The Jockey Club Tower, Centennial Campus
39172060
Isak Ladegaard is an Assistant Professor of Sociology with interests in economic sociology, science and technology, and crime and deviance. He employs a combination of qualitative and computational research methods in his work.
Ladegaard’s research has appeared in various peer-reviewed journals, including Social Problems, Social Forces, British Journal of Criminology, Sociology, Socio-Economic Review, and Sociological Review.
His book project about shadowy online groups is under contract with the University of California Press.
Ladegaard has been interviewed by numerous media outlets such as Wired Magazine, Newsweek, Le Monde, and The New York Times. Additionally, he has presented his research at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
Before returning to HKU, where he completed his undergraduate degree, he spent four years on the tenure track at the University of Illinois, a year and a half as a lecturer at Monash University in Melbourne, and six years at Boston College, where he did his Ph.D. He was born in Oslo.
Ladegaard holds an MA and PhD in Sociology from Boston College, and a BA in Journalism from the University of Hong Kong.
Economic Sociology
Technology and Society
Crime and Deviance
I’m currently writing about writing and artificial intelligence.
Ladegaard, I. (2024). Cleansing frames: How digital ‘consumer reports’ of cannabis and psychedelics normalise drug-taking and neutralise its counter-cultural potential. Sociology, 58(1), 100-117.
Benier, K., Faulkner, N., Ladegaard, I., & Wickes, R. (2024). Reducing Islamophobia through Conversation: A Randomized Control Trial. Social Psychology Quarterly, 01902725231217246.
Ladegaard, I., Ravenelle, A. J., & Schor, J. (2022). ‘God Is Protecting Me… And I Have Mace’: Defensive Labour In Precarious Workplaces. The British Journal of Criminology, 62(3), 773-789.
Ladegaard, I. (2020). Open secrecy: How police crackdowns and creative problem-solving brought illegal markets out of the shadows. Social Forces, 99(2), 532-559.