Dr Max Richard Ashton

(he/him)

BSc, MSc, PhD

Overview

I am an early-career mixed-methods researcher, based at the DECIPHer Centre within Cardiff University’s School of Social Sciences.

I have a long academic history at Cardiff, beginning in 2016. My academic background incorporates critical social Psychology and Education, with a specific focus on school-based relationships and sexuality education (RSE). My PhD research utilised diverse qualitative methods within a novel post-qualitative approach to explore Welsh teachers’ and pupils’ experiences of RSE provision during the rollout of the national Curriculum for Wales. Since completing my doctorate, I have worked more broadly across health- and wellbeing-related topics pertaining to young people, including vaping/e-cigarette use, gender diversity, and mental health.

My research interests include gender and sexuality, theorising complexity within organisational contexts, and exploring the processes by which education and health policy is/nt translated into practice.

I currently occupy two part-time roles within the University. I am a Research Associate working on the Children and Young People theme of Datamind, a project focused upon improving access to mental health data and mental health research across the UK. I also work as a Research Associate within the Centre for Trials Research on Test & Learn, a study focused on nurses working with outreach teams to support people who are rough sleeping.