in conversation with

Messed Up! 1: Richard Wortley on Effective Writing

Three key lessons from Richard:

1. Learn to be bold. Make arguments, don't just describe. Don't be afraid to disagree.
2. Learn to write the chapter as if you already know everything and find the most effective way of organising and articulating them.
3. Never use the word "this". It's almost always ambiguous.

Messed Up! 2: Michael Frith & Chris Lin on Failing the Viva

Three key lessons from Michael and Chris:

1. Don't worry about it.
2. Know your thesis (which you should because you wrote it!)
3. Don't take it too seriously. Your examiners want to have a humane conversation.

Messed Up! 3: Paul Gill on Fund Fiction

Three key lessons from Paul:

1. You need an idea that you can sell to someone, ideas that have impact orientation.
2. For theme set funding calls: You need to know where that topic came from, how and why it was set, where the problem came from.
3. Be organised; know your deadlines, manage partners and budget, comply with call requirements.

Messed Up! 4: Kate Bowers on presenting

Three key lessons from Kate:

1. Make sure you tell a story. Remember it is a different skill from writing up research, so make sure you prepare that story. Have a clear message and prepared it in advance.
2. Rehearse. Make sure you are within time limits.
3. Own it and just be who you are. Remember that you are doing it for yourself. Remember why you are doing it and that you can do it in your own way with your own personality.

Messed Up! 5: Ella Cockbain on Media Relations

The video for this episode is not yet available.

Three key lessons from Ella:

1. Be careful about what and how you say it.
2. Be brave. Stand up for what is right and back yourself.
3. Take care of yourself.

Messed Up! 6: Kartikeya Tripathi on Ethics

Three key lessons from Kartikeya:

1. Keep on doing research in difficult environments. Embrace the ethical challenges of doing research in these settings.
2. There is a lot of data out there that will bring up very difficult ethical questions. Think about answering these questions.
3. Understand your audience. Do your research on the research setting. Understand the context and the people and then convey the message effectively; not everything needs to be communicated in a format.

Messed Up! 7: Jyoti Belur on paper rejections

Three key lessons from Jyoti:

1. Don’t take it personally. Let your anger play out. Talk to somebody about it.
2. Accept that the revisions have to be made.
3. Make the revision in the spirit of constructive critical feedback.

Messed Up! 8: Toby Davies on Early Teaching Mistakes

Three key lessons from Toby:

1. Keep it simple. Don't over complicate the task. Focus on doing a good lecture.
2. Beware of the administrative side of running a module. If something weird can happen, it will happen.
3. Imagine how it would be to teach yourself if you knew nothing of the subject. Write step by step of the story line so you can identify the gaps.

Messed Up! 9: Alex Bish on Tackling Procrastination

Three key lessons from Alex:

Messed Up! 10: Patricio Estevez-Soto on finding a job through rejections

Three key lessons from Patricio:

Messed Up! 11: Vaseem Khan on the most common PhD pitfalls

Watch or listen on YouTube or Spotify:

Three key lessons from Vas:

Messed Up! 12: Alina Ristea on adapting to new environments

 Watch or listen on YouTube or Spotify:

Three key lessons from Alina:

Messed Up! 13: Sherry Nakhaeizadeh on controversial research

Three key lessons from Sherry:

Messed Up! 14: David Suber on adapting to the realities of fieldwork

Three key lessons from David:

Messed Up! 15: Mohammed Almazrouei on coping with stress in PhD research

 Listen on Spotify:

Three key lessons from Mohammed:

Messed Up! 16: Dr. Marie Vasek on navigating gender and discrimination in research

Three key lessons from Marie:

Messed Up! 17: Dr. Lorenzo Pasculli on writer’s block

Three key lessons from Lorenzo:

Messed Up! 18: Sarah Ying Zheng on imposter syndrome

Three key lessons from Sarah: