Dr. Ayelet Kuper's current research program addresses the origins and history of the field of medical education research and the effects of that history (e.g. sociohistorical factors and the struggle for legitimacy between disciplines and methods) on the definitions of legitimate knowledge production within this field. She is also interested in relationship between the currently accepted knowledge production modalities on the legitimacy and/or limitations of particular subject areas within mainstream health professions education research, as well as in the potential impact of broadening the field's legitimate methodologies on health professions education research and practice. She strives to bring theoretical and methodological perspectives from her humanities and social sciences background to areas of health professions education research which have evolved within limiting epistemological frameworks. She is also involved in publications and knowledge translation activities designed to enhance clinicians' understanding of qualitative methods in healthcare and related research.

Dr. Kuper attended graduate school in Medieval and Modern Languages at Magdalen College, Oxford as a Rhodes scholar, receiving a Masters degree (Research Methods in Modern Languages) in 1995 and a Doctorate two years later.  In 1997 she enrolled in medical school and then in an Internal Medicine residency at the University of Toronto, finishing her clinical training as a Chief Medical Resident (University Health Network/Mount Sinai Hospital) in 2004-2005. Between 2005 and 2007 she undertook a Masters degree in Education (Health Professions specialization) at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education and was a Wilson Centre Fellow. She joined the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto in 2007 as an Internist based at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, where she attends on the General Medicine wards three months per year. She has been teaching both undergraduates and postgraduates since she was a resident and prior to joining the faculty had already received awards for her teaching and for her contributions to medical education at the University of Toronto. Dr. Kuper is a Clinician-Scientist in the Department of Medicine and an Associate Scientist at the Sunnybrook Research Institute. She became a Wilson Centre Scientist in 2010.