Dr Ashley Schram
Areas of expertise
- Public Policy 160510
- Health Policy 160508
- Public Health And Health Services 1117
- International Trade Law 180117
Research interests
- food systems
- international trade and investment
- governance for health
- public health nutrition
- public policy
- social determinants of health and health equity
- noncommunicable disease
- sustainable development
Biography
Ashley is a Braithwaite Fellow in the School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet) and Deputy Director of the Menzies Centre for Health Governance. From 2017-2019 Ashley led a programme of research on policy evaluation in an NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in the Social Determinants of Health Equity.
Her research investigates the regulation, governance, policy, and politics of the social determinants of health inequities. Focal areas include food systems, trade and investment liberalisation, noncommunicable diseases, and sustainable development.
Ashley is an author on 35+ peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, including publications in Nature Food, Addiction, Public Health Nutrition, International Journal of Health Policy & Management, Health Policy, and Social Science and Medicine. She previously worked in the Office of International Affairs for the Health Portfolio providing research, analysis, and advice for the Government of Canada on matters related to international trade and investment policy and domestic health regulation. She has also co-facilitated several workshops, roundtables and training sessions for academics, practitioners, policymakers and nongovernmental organisations on trade and investment and health. Ashley has been invited to speak on trade and health at more than 10 international events.
Current projects:
Ashley is currently an investigator on several projects including an ARC Discovery Project examining how ideas, norms, institutional rules and relationships between actors can be used to rebalance power in policy making for better nutrition outcomes; a Medical Research Future Fund project mapping and critically evaluating Australia’s food and nutrition regulation and governance regime to identify evidence-informed options to facilitate Australia’s transition to a nutritious food system; and an Asia-Pacific Innovation Project exploring the utility of Twitter as a forum to better understand public sentiment to regulation through a study of narrative around the lockout laws in Sydney. She has recently undertaken a contract with the World Health Organization for work related to trade and nutrition.
Available Projects:
I am always eager to hear from Masters and PhD students who have an interest in working on projects in the following areas:
- studies of food systems and/or international trade and investment in relation to human and planetary health
- studies of innovation in the international investment system to support sustainable development
- studies of structural inequities related to human health and distributive justice
Publications
- Friel, S, Schram, A & Townsend, B 2020, 'The nexus between international trade, food systems, malnutrition and climate change', Nature Food, vol. 1, pp. 51-58.
- Townsend, B & Schram, A 2020, 'Trade and investment agreements as structural drivers for NCDs: the new public health frontier', Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, vol. 44, no. 2, pp. 92-94.
- Schram, A, Goldman, S & Goldman, S 2020, 'Paradigm Shift: New Ideas for a Structural Approach to NCD Prevention: Comment on "How Neoliberalism Is Shaping the Supply of Unhealthy Commodities and What This Means for NCD Prevention"', International Journal of Health Policy and Management, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 124-127.
- Townsend, B, Schram, A, Baum, F et al 2020, 'How does policy framing enable or constrain inclusion of social determinants of health and health equity on trade policy agendas?', Critical Public Health, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 115-126.
- Fisher, M, Freeman, T, Baum, F, Schram A, Friel S. 'Implementing policy on next-generation broadband networks and implications for equity of access to high speed broadband: A case study of Australia's NBN. Telecommunications Policy, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.telpol.2020.101911
- Fisher, M, Freeman, T, Baum, F, Schram A, Friel S. 'Implementing policy on next-generation broadband networks and implications for equity of access to high speed broadband: A case study of Australia's NBN. Telecommunications Policy, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.telpol.2020.101911
- Harris P, Baum F, Friel S, Mackean T, Schram A, Townsend B. 2020. 'A glossary of theories for understanding power and policy for health equity ' Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, 2020 doi:10.1136/jech-2019-213692
- Schram, A, Aisbett, E, Townsend, B et al 2020, 'Toxic trade: the impact of preferential trade agreements on alcohol imports from Australia in partner countries", Addiction, 115(7): 1277- 1284. doi.org/10.1111/add.14925
- Friel, S, Baker, P, Thow, A et al 2019, 'An expose of the realpolitik of trade negotiations: implications for population nutrition', Public Health Nutrition, vol. 22, no. 16, pp. 3080-3091.
- Schram, A, Townsend, B, Youde, J et al 2019, 'Public health over private wealth: rebalancing public and private interests in international trade and investment agreements', Public Health Research & Practice, vol. 29, no. 3.
- Townsend, B, Schram, A, Labont, R et al 2019, 'How do actors with asymmetrical power assert authority in policy agenda-setting? A study of authority claims by health actors in trade policy', Social Science and Medicine, vol. 236, no. 112430, pp. 1-9.
- Schram, A, Ruckert, A, VanDuzer, J et al 2018, 'A conceptual framework for investigating the impacts of international trade and investment agreements on noncommunicable disease risk factors', Health Policy and Planning, vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 123-136.
- Lee, D, Schram, A, Riley, E et al 2018, 'Addressing Health Equity Through Action on the Social Determinants of Health: A Global Review of Policy Outcome Evaluation Methods', International Journal of Health Policy and Management, vol. 7, no. 7, pp. 581-592pp.
- Schram, A, Friel, S, Freeman, T et al 2018, 'Digital Infrastructure as a Determinant of Health Equity: An Australian Case Study of the Implementation of the National Broadband Network ', Australian Journal of Public Administration, vol. 77, no. 4, pp. 829-842pp.
- Labonte, R, Ruckert, A & Schram, A 2018, 'Trade, investment and the global economy: Are we entering a new era for health?', Global Social Policy, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 28-44.
- Schram, A 2018, 'When evidence isn't enough: Ideological, institutional, and interest-based constraints on achieving trade and health policy coherence', Global Social Policy, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 62-80pp.
- Schram, A, Friel, S, VanDuzer, J et al 2017, 'Internalisation of International Investment Agreements in Public Policymaking: Developing a Conceptual Framework of Regulatory Chill', Global Policy, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 193-203.
- Schram, A & Labonte, R 2017, 'Trade and public health', Canadian Medical Association journal, vol. 189, no. 26, pp. E879-E880.
- Labonte, R, Schram, A & Ruckert, A 2017, 'The TPP Is Dead, Long Live the TPP? A Response to Recent Commentaries', International Journal of Health Policy and Management, vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 245-247pp.
- Ruckert, A, Schram, A, Labonte, R et al 2017, 'Policy coherence, health and the sustainable development goals: a health impact assessment of the Trans-Pacific Partnership', Critical Public Health, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 86-96pp.
- Labonte, R, Schram, A & Ruckert, A 2016, 'The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement and health: Few gains, some losses, many risks', Globalization and Health, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 1-7.
- Baker, P, Friel, S, Schram, A et al 2016, 'Trade and investment liberalization, food systems change and highly processed food consumption: a natural experiment contrasting the soft-drink markets of Peru and Bolivia', Globalization and Health, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 1-13pp.
- Friel, S, Ponnamperuma, S, Schram, A et al 2016, 'Shaping the discourse: What has the food industry been lobbying for in the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement and what are the implications for dietary health?', Critical Public Health, vol. 26, no. 5, pp. 518-529pp.
- Schram, A & Labonte, R 2016, 'Trade and Investment Agreements: The Empowerment of Pharmaceutical and Tobacco Corporations', in Nora Kenworthy, Ross Mackenzie and Kelley Lee (ed.), Case Studies on Corporations and Global Health Governance: Impacts, Influence and Accountability, Rowman and Littlefield, London, pp. 131-144pp.
- Schram, A, Labonte, R, Baker, P et al 2015, 'The role of trade and investment liberalization in the sugar-sweetened carbonated beverages market: a natural experiment contrasting Vietnam and the Philippines', Globalization and Health, vol. 11, no. 41, pp. 1-13pp.
- Thow, A, Snowden, W, Labonte, R et al 2015, 'Will the next generation of preferential trade and investment agreements undermine prevention of noncommunicable diseases? A prospective policy analysis of the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement', Health Policy, vol. 119, no. 1, pp. 88-96.
- Schram, A, Labonte, R & Khatter, K 2015, 'The Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement and public health: Why we should be concerned', Open Medicine, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 100-101.
- Labonte, R, Schram, A & Ruckert, A 2015, 'The Trans-Pacific Partnership: Is it everything we feared for health?', International Journal of Health Policy and Management, vol. 5, no. 8, pp. 487-496.
- Schram, A, Ruckert, A, Labonte, R et al 2015, 'Media and neoliberal hegemony: Canadian newspaper coverage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement', Studies in Political Economy: A Socialist Review, vol. 97, no. 2, pp. 159-174.
- Ruckert, A, Schram, A & Labonte, R 2015, 'The trans-pacific partnership agreement: Trading away our health?', Canadian Journal of Public Health, vol. 106, no. 4, pp. E249-E251.
- Schram, A, Labonte, R & Sanders, D 2013, 'Urbanization and international trade and investment policies as determinants of noncommunicable diseases in sub-saharan Africa', Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases, vol. 56, no. 3, pp. 281-301.
Projects and Grants
Grants information is drawn from ARIES. To add or update Projects or Grants information please contact your College Research Office.
- Governing harmful commodities: the case of ultra-processed foods (Secondary Investigator)
- Project Funding Agreement (for Boosting Prevention Projects) Subcontract (Secondary Investigator)
