Professor Chris Ashford

Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor

School: Northumbria School of Law

Professor Ashford is the Associate Pro-Vice Chancellor (Research and Knowledge Exchange) in the Faculty of Society and Culture, and Professor of Law and Society. He is also the University Senior Sponsor for LGBTQ+ Equality.

Chris has published widely on the area of law and sexuality and legal education. A queer theorist; his research has focused upon challenging normative assumptions about sexuality. He has advised LGBT community and health groups, the NHS, Police and UK Parliament. His legal education research has explored and documented the rise of the apprenticeship route to qualification, and the impact upon Law Schools, whilst his pedagogic research has focused upon the use of technology and media.

Chris is a member of the REF2029 UoA18 (Law) Sub-panel (assessment phase) and undertook the same role for REF2021. He is a member of the ESRC and AHRC Peer Review Colleges. In 2020 he was appointed to the Advisory Council of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS). He also served as Chair of the 2023 QAA Law Subject Benchmark Statement review. He previously undertook the minor 2019 review of the QAA Law Benchmark Statement (which defines the academic standards that can be expected of UK law graduates), and he was a member of the 2014 Review Group. Following this review, he worked with the USAID Justice for All project in Ukraine to better connect legal education practitioners, regulators and Government across the two jurisdictions.

He is a former Chair of the Association of Law Teachers(2015-2017), a former Vice Chair, Secretary, Trustee and Board member of the Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA), and a former member of the SLS Legal Education Sub-Committee. He was a member of the 2015 Bar Standards Board (BSB) Academic Stage Working Group, and 2016 BSB Pathways to Qualification Task Completion Group.

He was General Editor of The Law Teacher: The International Journal of Legal Education (published by Routledge) between 2014 and 2024, and now serves as Joint Consultant Editor.

He has worked with various UKHEIs to advise on research quality and strategy. He is also a former Chair of the LGBTQ arts organisation Curious.

Campus Address

CCE-1

Email Chris

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
75 loads in LA: Situating the 'queer mundane' in viral times, Ashford, C., Longstaff, G. 30 Apr 2024, Viral Times, London, Taylor & Francis
A chapter closes, Ashford, C., Guth, J. 2 Apr 2024, In: Law Teacher
Gender Recognition and the Law: Troubling Transgender People's Engagement with Legal Regulation By Flora Renz, London: Routledge, 2024, 176 pp., £135.00, Ashford, C. 1 Dec 2024, In: Journal of Law and Society
Gender, Sexuality and Law: A Textbook, Ashford, C., Maine, A. 1 Jan 2024
Introduction to Gender, Sexuality and Law, Ashford, C., Maine, A. 1 Jan 2024, Gender, Sexuality and Law, Edward Elgar
Pornography and expression, Ashford, C., Maine, A. 1 Jan 2024, Gender, Sexuality and Law, Edward Elgar
The Quality Assurance Agency Law Subject Benchmark Statement 2023, Ashford, C. 2 Jul 2024, In: Law Teacher
Centring Feminist and Queer Experiences in the Law School: Legal Zines as a Humanising Pedagogy, Ashford, C., Graham, L., Rasiah, S. 30 Jun 2023, Biopolitics and Resistance in Legal Education, Birmingham, Routledge
Critical legal education as a subversive activity: edited by Helen Gibbon, Ben Golder, Lucas Lixinski, Marina Nehme and Prue Vines, Routledge, 2023, 240 pp., £120 (hardback), Abingdon ISBN 9781032006970, Ashford, C. 27 Feb 2023, In: The Law Teacher
Counter-Cultural Groups in the Age of Covid: Ravers, Travellers and Legal Regulation, Ashford, C., O'Brien, M. 1 Aug 2022, In: The Journal of Criminal Law

Current and Recent Projects

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
SLSA PGR Conference, Graham, L. (Principal Investigator), Ashford, C. (Co Investigator), Socio-Legal Studies Association, 01/07/23 - 30/06/24, £7,025.00

PGR Supervision

Vincent Gaillard What do chemsex experiences as lived by men who have sex with men add to the legal understanding of intoxication and capacity to consent in England and Wales? Start Date: 01/10/2023
Vincent Gaillard What do chemsex experiences as lived by men who have sex with men add to the legal understanding of intoxication and capacity to consent in England and Wales? Start Date: 01/10/2023 End Date: 02/11/2025