Dilara Üsküp

Dilara K. Üsküp, PhD, PhD, is a joint doctoral graduate of the University of Chicago’s Department of Political Science and the Divinity School.  Dr. Üsküp is interested in the intersection of race, cannabis, and social justice.  The racialization and criminalization of substance use—cannabis in particular—have had devastating impacts on the Black and Latino community. Racism and white nationalism undergirded America’s War on Drugs. To this end, as political scientist, theologian, and public health scholar, she is interested in cannabis’ impact economically, politically, and its potential for both therapeutic use and adverse effects. Dr. Üsküp is currently working with a Black and faith-based cannabis incubator in Los Angeles to understand the political impacts of social equity programming in LA. Second, she is working on a cannabis pain management study on Black Americans in LA. Black Americans have not been the focus on any cannabis and pain management studies or cannabis and impulse inhibition studies. Dr. Üsküp’s public health research seeks to assess adverse impacts and therapeutic potential of cannabis in the setting of pain among Black Americans.