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Hi. I’m David Wyatt, a researcher living in London.  My work sits at the intersection of sociology, criminology and science and technology studies. I’m interested in the minutiae of everyday practices and the interactions between everyday work and broader organisational, political and economic infrastructures. 

Picture of David Wyatt

My PhD research, completed at the University of Exeter under the supervision of Professor Christine Hauskeller and Professor Dana Wilson-Kovacs, considered these areas by looking at the everyday practices of Crime Scene Examiners (CSEs) in the British Police. I explored how CSEs are trained to identify, collect and process items of forensic potential at crime scenes, the skills and expertise required to do this job and how these practices sit in the wider work of using science in contemporary policing. You can find out more about my research and ongoing projects in this area on the forensic practices tab.

My current work at King’s College London, where I am a Senior Research Fellow, focuses on the transformation of the National Health Service (NHS) from solely a provider of free at the point of delivery healthcare, to an organisation which also supports, completes and directs health research. I’m currently using the practices involved in turning routine health records into health research data as a case study of the incorporation of research into routine healthcare delivery. At a theoretical level, my KCL work speaks to broader issues of the changing nature of patienthood and citizenship in the UK and questions on the political economy of the NHS itself.  More about my KCL work can be found at my official KCL page here and on the health research systems tab.

I am also an affiliate of the ESRC-funded project (ES/R00742X/1), Understanding the Use of Digital Forensics in Policing in England and Wales: An Ethnographic Analysis of Current Practices and Professional Dynamics, lead by Dr Dana Wilson-Kovacs at the University of Exeter.

As a teacher, I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Until October 2021, I was module lead on the KCL’s Masters of Public Health (MPH) module, Social Research Methods for Public Health. I also teach on the MPH module, Engaging Publics in Health Research: Theory, Politics and Practice, supervise PhD students, supervise MPH/MSc students’ dissertations and supervise undergraduate scholarly projects. I provide professional training in qualitative research methods through the National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Foundation Trust and King’s College London. Between 2016 and 2018, I coordinated the ESRC LISS-DTP Postgraduate Summer School entitled, Doing Social Science Research in Healthcare Settings. I also guest lecture at UCL on the Master’s moduleSocial Theory and the Study of Contemporary Social Problems.