Matthew S. Hanchard

I am a sociologist and science and technology studies (STS) scholar working for the EU HORIZON funded Deliberative improvement of oral care quality (DELIVER) project at the University of Manchester (2025-2026). I previously worked as a Research Fellow for the Wellcome funded Orphan drugs: high prices, access to medicines and the transformation of biopharmaceutical innovation project at the University of Sheffield (2021-2025). In the past, I also worked as a Research Associate for an AHRC funded project called Beyond the Multiplex: Audiences for specialised film at the University of Glasgow (2018-2021).

To date, I have published two books (one sole-authored with Palgrave-Macmillan called 'Engaging with Digital Maps' and one co-authored with University of Manchester Press called 'Film Audiences') and nineteen peer-review articles. Elsewhere, I have spoken widely at a range of events internationally (from pharmaceutical industry conferences like the World Orphan Drug and World EPA congresses, through to academic ones such as IAMCR and 4s-EASST).

Beyond research, I have accrued fifteen years of HE teaching acumen experience across the social sciences (undergraduate and postgraduate), including as a primary supervisor. I also have a wealth of working experience gained by working full-time throughout all three degrees, ranging from project and programme management (full-cycle software implementations) through to policy analysis and writing.   

• Digital Sociology
• Medical Sociology
• Open Research / Open Qualitative Research
• Science and Technology Studies (STS)

I have particpated in (and at times led) a broad range of projects, often undertaken alongside full-time employed roles:

• Working group member
  (October 2022 - October 2026)
  EU COST funded action CA21141 Grassroots of Digital Europe: from Historic to Contemporary Cultures of Creative Computing (GRADE).
  
  
• Principal investigator
  (January 2023 - July 2023)
  Research England (internally) funded Fostering cultures of open qualitative research project.
  
  
• Co-investigator
  (January 2022 - July 2022)
  Research England (internally) funded Patient access to orphan drugs in the UK from patients’ perspectives project.
  
  
• Co-investigator
  (January 2023 - January 2024)
  Wellcome funded The social lives of patients’ stories: the roles of accounts of rare disease from innovation to authorisation and marketing of orphan drugs (SLoPS) project.
  
  
• Co-Investigator
  (February 2019 - May 2020)
  University of Sydney-University of Glasgow partnership collaboration award (PCA) funded Smart publics: Public perceptions of smart street furniture in Glasgow and London project.
  
  
• Early career investigator
  (October 2015 - March 2018)
  EC COST funded action TU1305 on Social Networks and Travel Behaviour - including a one-month short-term scientific mission (STSM) at the Norwegian Institute of Transport Economics (TØI -Transportøkonomisk institutt) in October 2016.

• Digital methods
• Meta-narrative literature analysis
• Multimodal research
• Qualitative research
• Quantitative research
• Social network analysis (SNA)

• PGCertTLHE in Teaching and Learning for Higher Education
  2024-2025 - University of Sheffield, School of Education
  
  
• FHEA - Fellowship of the Higher Education Authority 
  2022-2022 - University of Sheffield, School of Education
  
  
• PhD in Human Geography
  2011-2019 (part-time)
  Newcastle University, School of Geograhy, Politics, and Sociology
  
  
• MA in Photography and Urban Cultures
  2008-2009
  Goldsmiths, Uni. of London, Department of Sociology
  
  
• BA (Hons) in Photography
  2002-2006
  University of Derby, School of Art.

I have fifteen years of higher education teaching acumen, and have supervised numerous students through their MA dissertations. Prior to academia, I designed, developed, and delivered a training programme on IT software (Microsoft SharePoint) use to ~1,500 staff spread across 70 separate sites nationally. 

University of Sheffield
2021 - 2025 - Guest Lecturer & Seminar Leader

• Advanced Social Media Research [UG & PG]
• Dissertation supervision: Digital Media & Society [PG]
• Sociology of Health and Illness [UG}

University of Glasgow
2018-2021 - Lecturer & Seminar Leader

• Digital Society [UG & PG]
• Quantitative Methods for the Social Sciences [UG]

University of Sheffield
2015-2016 - Seminar Leader

• Globalisation and World Cultures [UG]
• Social Divisions [UG]
• Sociology of Everyday Life [UG]
• The Sociological Imagination [UG]
• The State of Sheffield: Super-diverse Sheffield [UG]
• Understanding Social Inequality [UG]
• Welfare Politics and the State [UG]
• Cultural Concepts in the Creative & Cultural Industries [PG]