About

I’m a researcher and writer on care, identity and relationships. I’m currently a Senior Lecturer (equivalent to Associate Professor) in the School of Health, Wellbeing and Social Care at The Open University (UK). 

My book Men, Masculinities and the Care of Children: Images, Ideas and Identities was published by Routledge in 2020.  Men and Loss: New Perspectives on Bereavement, Grief and Masculinity, which I am co-editing with Kerry Jones, will be published by Routledge in 2024.

I’m the host of Careful Thinking, a podcast exploring ideas about care and inspired by a belief that thinking critically about care can both deepen our understanding, and improve the day-to-day practice, of care. My Substack, in which I link to episodes of the podcast and discuss the issues raised, can be found here.

I’m co-editor of the journal Children & Society. 

Research

My academic research has been mainly concerned with issues of gender and care. After small-scale studies with ‘hands on’ fathers and male childcare workers, I led Beyond Male Role Models, an ESRC-funded research project in association with Action for Children, exploring gender identities and practices in work with young men using social care services. I then led a project on Young men, masculinity and wellbeing, as part of an international study in partnership with Promundo. Most recently I’ve worked with colleagues on studies of fathers and perinatal bereavement and fathers’ relationships with their disabled children. I have a growing interest in care ethics and am developing a writing project on personalism and theories of care. 

Background

I studied English Literature at Cambridge University (1975-78), then spent a year as a full-time volunteer in a residential project for emotionally disturbed ex-offenders in Worcester, before studying for a Ph.D. in the Faculty of Arts at Manchester University (1979-82), completing a thesis on twentieth-century Christian poetry. After a short period teaching part-time in adult and further education, I spent four years working full-time for the National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders (NACRO), setting up an education project in Basildon, Essex (1983 – 84), then managing an education day centre as part of a residential project in Stoke Newington, North London (1984 – 86). From 1987 to 1989 I was the community education organiser for Berinsfield, a socially disadvantaged housing estate near Oxford, following which I was appointed as director of Baselines, the adult basic education project for the Milton Keynes area (1989 – 1991).

I joined The Open University in 1991, initially to work on community education and ‘access’ courses, then later on the Health and Social Care programme. I hold a Diploma in Adult Education from Nottingham University and an Advanced Diploma in Child Development and an M.Sc. in Psychology from The Open University. I’ve led the development of a wide range of Open University distance learning courses, including courses on communication and relationships in health and social care and work with children and young people. I’m currently the academic coordinator for the OU’s M.A. in Childhood and Youth Studies.

Follow me on Twitter/X @DrMartinRobb.

You can email me at: martin.robb@open.ac.uk

The header image is ‘First Steps, After Millet’ (1890) by Vincent Van Gogh (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)