Core Team

Natasha Mauthner

I have had a relatively straightforward academic career, progressing from my undergraduate degree into a PhD, with a brief six-month break volunteering at a Vietnamese refugee camp in Singapore. After a decade as a full-time researcher at the Universities of Harvard, Aberdeen and Edinburgh, I secured a lectureship at the University of Aberdeen Business School. In 2018, I joined Newcastle University Business School as Director of Research and, in 2024, took on the role of Associate Dean for Good Research Practice, working with the university’s research culture team. 

I am a bit of a ‘discipline hopper’ because I enjoy integrating insights across fields. My first degree, in natural sciences, included biology, psychology, and the history and philosophy of science. My PhD was a qualitative study of women’s experiences of motherhood and postnatal depression, combining feminist psychology and sociology. My research has since focused on gender, family and work; and the philosophy, ethics, and practice of social science. I am particularly interested in how epistemic diversity shapes research practice and how to embed epistemic justice into research governance and culture. 

In the Wellcome Trust project, I co-lead two workstreams: the participatory action research methodology and project evaluation. I bring methodological skills from 30 years working as a qualitative researcher within a feminist tradition. I also bring knowledge and experience of leadership, and leadership development, gained through various role and through delivering a three-year programme for research leaders in British and European business schools. 

Outside work, my three adult children still keep me busy. I enjoy walking and am nearly halfway through climbing all 282 Scottish Munros. I’m also working my way through three long-distance walks in Scotland: the Speyside Way, the Fife Coastal Path, and the Formartine and Buchan Way— breaking my mother-in-law’s rule about never starting a new pot of jam before finishing the last one!