Ahsan Mashhood

Ahsan Mashhood is a DPhil (PhD) student in the Department of Social Policy and Intervention at the University of Oxford.

His research examines the social epidemiology of suicide in Pakistan, using mixed methods to understand how suicidal distress, help-seeking, and suicide outcomes are shaped by gender, sexuality, social inequality, and institutional systems.

He is particularly interested in how gender, sex, and sexuality are measured, interpreted, and sometimes rendered invisible in suicide research across low- and middle-income countries, especially Pakistan. His doctoral work brings together epidemiology, qualitative research, critical social theory, and public mental health, with a focus on young people and structurally marginalised communities.

Central to Ahsan’s scientific practice, social activism, and philosophy of life is a commitment to radical optimism: the belief that careful, humane, and politically engaged research can still create possibilities for change, even in dark times for global mental health. Prior to joining the DSPI, he worked as a researcher at the Legal Aid Society.

You can find Ahsan on LinkedIn and Google Scholar.