Joshua Mason

About

Hello and welcome to my humble web page!

I am a PhD Candidate in the Department of Sociology at UCD. Throughout much of my life I have had an enduring interest in the US medical system, drug use, and drug policy. My primary research areas are in medical sociology, cultural sociology, and the sociology of knowledge.

I am primarily a qualitative researcher at this stage of my career. My qualifying paper was a large scale in-depth interview project which sought to understand and explain how medical doctors involved in psychedelic-assisted therapy and research perceive, construct, and navigate the professional and epistemic boundaries within their fields of practice. My dissertation work is an even larger scale in-depth interview project with patients and practitioners of psychedelic-assisted therapy which seeks to illuminate the relational aspects of therapeutic work that play a role in the social construction of mental health diagnoses, drug experiences, and the states of health and healing among patients. I firmly believe that psychedelic-assisted therapy will become a monolith in the US healthcare market in the coming years, and that sociology is uniquely equipped to ask questions and resolve issues around care quality and accessibility which are otherwise absent in the fields of psychedelic-assisted therapy and research.

In the classroom, I am deeply passionate about teaching sociology and love to turn literature into engaging, thought-provoking discussions with my students. I consider myself very approachable and friendly, and encourage any of my students to come chat with me in office hours, even if it's just to shoot the breeze about life or get some professional advice.

If you'd like to know more about my approaches to teaching or my dissertation research, please don't hesitate to reach out.