Ingrid Young

Reader

Biography

Background

Ingrid is a Reader in the Centre for Biomedicine, Self and Society at the University of Edinburgh.  She is a medical sociologist who works with qualitative methods, including arts-based and participatory methods. She specialises in sexual and reproductive health and social justice, LGBTQ+ health, gender, biotechnologies and community activism. 

Prior to joining the University of Edinburgh, Ingrid worked at the Institute of Development Studies (2004 – 2007) and was a Research Fellow in Sexual Health at the University of Glasgow's Medical Research Council (MRC) / Chief Scientist Office (CSO) Social and Public Health Sciences Unit (2011-2016).

Qualifications

PhD in Sociology (Newcastle University)

MA in History (University of Waterloo, Canada)

BA (Hons) in History (Trent University, Canada)

Undergraduate teaching

Ingrid is the programme director for the Bioethics, Law and Society BMedSci Honours degree for 3rd year intercalating medical students. She also leads on social science and LGBTQ year 2 teaching for the MBChB programme; she leads on 2 modules for the Society, Ethics and Medicine  (SEAM) course and ran a trans health topic as part of the interdisciplinary Transitions course for three years.

Ingrid also supervises Honours year dissertations for BMedSci and other programme students, and supervises MBChB Year 2 group projects on the Future of Medicine.

Postgraduate teaching

 Ingrid has contributed to a range of Masters in Public Health courses run by the Usher Institute. She currently supervises MPH dissertations, including projects such as: how can nursing be made more trans inclusive; the sexual health of homeless women; Pre-exposure Prophylaxis and stigma amongst Trans sex workers in Singapore; access to cancer screening for Trans communities; and HIV stigma amongst African Americans. 

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

No

Areas of interest for supervision

Ingrid is not currently able to supervise PhD students for the 2026 intake. In future, she would open to PhD supervision enquiries, partiularly those relating to: Sexual and Reproductive Health; HIV; Pharmaceuticals for Prevention; Emerging Health Technologies; Gender; Sexuality; LGBT Health; Migration; Inequalities; Health Literacy; Health Activism; Qualitative Research Methods; Participatory Research and Knowledge Exchange.

Current PhD students supervised

Ingrid is currently supervising the folloiwng PhD students:

  • Lisa Raeder | The Social Life of Sexual and Reproductive Health (Bio)Technologies | Chancellor's Fellowship Studentship (Centre for Biomedicine, Self & Society, supervising with Jeni Harden & Sarah Cunningham-Burley)
  • Sophie Buijsen | Knowing Sex: A Comparative study of the knowledge practices and experiences of adolescent girls in Scotland and the Netherlands | Alice Brown Scholarship (Science, Technology and Innovation Studies, supervising with Fadhila Mazanderani)

  • Daniel Nyato | Social Networks, Livelihoods and HIV risk amongst Young Women in a post Cash Transfer Environment in North-western Tanzania (external supervisor, QMUL, Wellcome-funded studentship)

Past PhD students supervised

  • Yu-chen Lin | ICTs and disability (Science, Technology and Innovation Studies, supervising with Fadhila Mazanderani & Martyn Pickersgill)

  • George Burrows | Identifying factors influencing sexual health and wellbeing among transgender adults in Scotland (external supervisor, University of Glasgow, MRC-funded students

  • Chase Ledin | Post-AIDS: Queer Ecology, HIV and the Chronic After-Life | Edinburgh Global Scholarship (Edinburgh College of Art, supervising with Glyn Davis & Lukas Englemann)

  • Hani  Syahida Salim | Developing and piloting an ICT-based intervention for adult asthma with limited health litearcy to improve asthma self-management | NIHR RESPIRE PhD Studentship (supervising with Hilary Pinnock, Sazlina Shariff Ghazali, Lee Ping Yein)

Research summary

Ingrid is particularly interested in how experiences of and inequalities across gender, sexualities, race and technologies shape sexual health and wellbeing. Her research explores sexual and reproductive health and social justice, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), critical HIV literacies, LGBTQ+ health, and health activisms. 

Current research interests

Ingrid is currently PI on a Welcome Discovery Grant Medicine without Doctors: Reimagining Care and Voice through Play. This project includes colleagues across the University of Edinburgh (Usher, Law, STIS), community partner The Love Tank CIC and creative partner Andthen. As part of this project, she is co-leading the project case study LGBTQ+ Health activism with Dr Will Nutland (The Love Tank). Ingrid is also co-investigator and co-lead on British Academy funded project Doing Disability Futures, working with Dr Donna McCormack (Strathclyde). This project builds on the arts-based project started in 2020 with McCormack called Capturing Chronic Illness. She is also working with colleagues as part of the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Research Collective (Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness, led by Carrie Purcell, Open University). Ingrid has led and/or worked on a number of projects with colleagues over her career, including Digital Intimacies (ESRC, with Jamie Hakim, Kings & James Cummings, York), Sex, Drugs & Activism (Wellcome Sexuality Seed Funding), Developing HIV Literacy, (CSO Postdoctoral Fellowship), and an evaluation of HIV PrEP in Scotland (CSO, Claudia Estcourt, GCU).

Knowledge exchange

Ingrid is a co-author of the British HIV Association Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Clinical Guidelines (2018, 2025), and lead on the equity chapter of the most recent guidelines. 

She has been involved in various Scottish HIV and Sexual Health policy committees over the last ten years. She currently sits on the Scottish HIV Elimination Strategy committee. aHer ongoing collaborations with Scottish NHS and third sector partners has resulted in two commissioned short films that focus on PrEP for Black African and Trans communities in Scotland. These films, along with other public facing materials feature on Scotland's NHS Inform website - https://www.nhsinform.scot/hiv-prep-pre-exposure-prophylaxis

Ingrid was co-chair of IRESH (www.iresh.org.uk), Scottish Interdisciplinary Research in Sexual Health Network from 2018 - 2020 and continues to be an active member. 

Current project grants

Medicine without Doctors: Reimagining Care and Voice through Play (Wellcome Trust)

Doing Disability Futures (British Academy)

Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Collective (Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness)

Past project grants

Digital Intimacies (ESRC)

Sex, Drugs and Activism (Wellcome Trust)

Developing HIV Literacy (CSO)

Organiser

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