Meet the ISTN-3 Grads: Chase Staras
Chase Staras (he/they) is a PhD candidate at Nottingham Trent University. Their doctoral research aims to use social prescribing to develop new healthcare initiatives for trans and gender diverse people. Chase priorly obtained a Bachelors degree in Clinical Psychology from Anglia Ruskin University, before completing an MRes in Psychological Research Methods at Nottingham Trent University. We spoke with Chase about their experience with the ISTN and future plans after graduating.
Where and what are you currently studying?
I'm currently doing a PhD in Psychology at Nottingham Trent University in the UK. My research is around anti-discrimination of LGBTQ+ people, but rather than doing research that focuses on negative aspects of LGBTQ+ experiences, I focus on positive things because there’s quite a joy deficit in research of this community. My PhD research is focused on offering psycho-social supports - sort of offering like community groups - and thinking about the ways that we can increase the social connectedness of these communities to give them resources that they need and, in the future, looking toward holistic healthcare models and how we can implement those.
Where did your interest in doing research with LGBTQ+ populations begin?
During my undergraduate, I had the opportunity to work with a couple of people from INQYR and, actually, I didn't realize that a career studying something like LGBTQ+ populations was even possible. So, it was really connecting with INQYR that [my interest in doing this research] stems from - being able to research a community that's really important personally to me, and being able to feel like I'm making an impact to people that are close to me.
How has your experience in the ISTN impacted your scholarship and research?
In the two years [that I was in the ISTN], I had the opportunity to both attend presentations from really key people in the fields and also the opportunity to do “Tea Chats” which was where we could present our own work and talk to other students who were doing similar things. I found that, for me, it was really helpful because - especially when you’re doing a PhD - it often feels like you’re working in a bubble on your own, so it was a really great opportunity to see what other people are doing, learn about different techniques and methods that you can use with LGBTQ+ populations, and thinking about ways you can do actionable research that make these communities more comfortable.
What is it like doing this research in the current global socio-political climate?
It’s increasingly challenging. I knew about the challenges in trans healthcare before I started my PhD, but, like most PhD students, I started quite optimistically. Not to say that I’m not still optimistic, but, for example, in the UK, a couple of the gender clinics in London have specifically closed for young people, so other gender clinics have started to take on young people in their service even though they’re an adult clinic because they don’t want young people to be left without that continuity of care. But they don’t have NHS funding for young people services because [funding was] isolated to the London clinics, so now you have adult gender clinics trying to support both trans adults and trans children and it’s leading to issues with staffing capacity.
For me, as a researcher trying to work with these clinics to implement a new service, things have now come to a standstill because they already had very limited capacity before and now there’s no capacity at all. Without the overarching funding, it’s very difficult to get anything moving forward especially because they want a lot of research evidence before a change is even made, but you can’t get funding to do research evidence and you end up in this cycle. So, it’s been frustrating but definitely rewarding when you finally get somewhere with something even if it’s just a small step.
What are some key takeaways from ISTN that you will take into your future work?
I think, for me, it's thinking about the work I do on a broader level. As I said before, it’s really difficult when you’re doing a PhD to not feel like you’re just working in a bubble. Being able to connect with other people and see the work that they’re doing, you’re able to draw the dots. If there’s something that I’m struggling to do in the UK, for example, I can approach people in other countries and see how they made a similar change or intervention and then think about how I can make that change in my own context. I think just learning from other people has been really helpful.
