‘Reflections from suicide research in Pakistan’ by Ahsan Mashhood

I am a PhD student at the University of Oxford, researching suicide and mental health among young people in Pakistan. In this Guftgu, I will share reflections from my first paper, which examines the tension between public health models of knowledge production and decolonial thought. Conceived as a genuinely two-way dialogue, this session welcomes participants from across the university, as it brings together social theory, decolonial perspectives, and public health. Students, scholars, and policymakers are invited to collectively explore what meaningful decolonial work might look like within public policy spaces when addressing what is, at its core, a deeply social issue: suicide.