‘Messed Up!’ Series

“Messed Up!” is a live seminar series in a talk show format where our SECReT hosts will engage with budding and established academics to discuss mistakes, failures and the less glorious aspects of academia that do not necessarily make it into research papers.

That’s right, we’re interested in failure.

All of the Messed Up episodes are also available through podcasts on Spotify!

Latest sessions


Messed Up! 19: Asking the hard questions: is academia right for you?

22 November 2023 | Patricio obtained his PhD in Security and Crime Science in 2020 and was a member of staff at the JDI from 2019 to 2023, first as a Teaching Fellow and then as a Lecturer. In late 2023, he left UCL for a position in the private sector. In this episode, he will be sharing advice on how to critically examine your career choices in academia and beyond.

.


Messed Up! 18: Imposter syndrome

28 June 2023 | Sarah is a final year PhD student who researches novel ways to help people detect online scams. To this end, she combines methods from cognitive science with technical development. Her Messed Up session will focus on imposter syndrome – what it is, how to identify it and how to get rid of it.


Messed Up! 17: Writer’s block

31 May 2023 | Lorenzo is Deputy Director of the UCL Dawes Centre for Future Crime, and a Principal Research Fellow in the Department of Security and Crime Science. He has a background in legal studies, and his recent research focuses on corruption and globalisation, and their impact on crime prevention and criminal justice. In this session, Lorenzo will be talking about his experience of writer’s block and how to push through it.


Messed Up! 16: Navigating Gender and Discrimination in Research

15 March 2023 | Marie is a lecturer in the computer science department – our first guest speaker from outside SCS! Her work focuses on cybercrime measurement with a particular interest in cryptocurrency fraud. Before UCL, she had been at 4 institutions in the US over a span of 10 years. She will talk about gender and how it has shaped her career, be it from overt discrimination or otherwise. From working in a field where she is one of the few female PIs, she will tell stories about how gender intersects with research. Some of these are particularly topical to time spent in the American South where she spent 5 years as a PhD student.


Messed Up! 15: Coping with stress in PhD research

14 December 2022 | Mohammed is a recent PhD graduate in the Department of Security and Crime Science, and his research investigated the sources and impact of stress in forensic decision-making. Mohammed will be talking about his experiences of specific stressors during the PhD journey that he learned to manage with time and experience.


Messed Up! 13: Disseminating controversial research

25 May 2022 | Sherry graduated from the Department of Security and Crime Science and is now a Lecturer in Crime and Forensic Science. Throughout her PhD and research career, Sherry has published and presented research that has introduced new and disruptive ideas which has since reshaped the field of Forensic Anthropology. She will be sharing her experience and the do’s and don’ts of presenting controversial research.


 

Messed Up! 12: Adapting to new environments

06 April 2022| Alina is a lecturer at the Department of Security and Crime Science. She is broadly interested and uses spatial crime analysis, social media mining, predictive analytics, safety perception, neighborhood disorder, GISciencea and urban informatics. Alina joined us to talk about her experiences moving around the globe for her academic career.


Messed Up! 11: Common PhD pitfalls

19 January 2022| Vas is the Business Development Director at the Department of Security & Crime Sciences. He will be sharing his stories and experiences in helping our department over the past 16 years, focusing on what makes or breaks a research grant proposal and what can cause PhD student meltdowns.


Messed Up! 10: Finding jobs through rejections

20 October 2021 | Patricio is a lecturer in UCL’s Security and Crime Science Department. His research is mostly focused on organised crime in Mexico, particularly extorsion. He obtained his PhD in Security and Crime Science in 2020. In this episode, he shares his experiences of and advice for finding a job in academia.


Messed Up! 9: Tackling procrastination

21 July 2021 | Alex is a PhD student at the Department of Security and Crime Science. Next to his PhD on migrant smuggling and trafficking networks in West and Africa, Alex is a Senior Analyst at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime specialising on armed groups, terrorism, migration, and sub-state political dynamics. Alex and our hosts will be discussing his experience and failures with procrastination, and how to increase productivity.


Messed Up! 8: Early Teaching Mistakes

30 June 2021 | Toby Davies is a lecturer at the Department of Security and Crime Science. His research interests include complex systems, networks, crime, and riots. Toby and our hosts will be discussing his experience and failures with teaching and how to learn from early mistakes to become a better educator.


Messed Up! 7: Paper rejections

19 May 2021 | Jyoti Belur, Associate Professor at the UCL Department of Security and Crime Science, will be discussing her experience and failures with publishing, and how to deal with paper rejections and unsavoury reviews.


Messed Up! 6: Ethics proofing your research

21 April 2021 | Kartikeya Tripathi, lecturer and chair of the Ethics Committee at the UCL Department of Security and Crime Science, discusses his experience and failures with ethics. Specifically on getting ethics approval and what it means to produce ethically sound research on the field.


Messed Up! 5: Media relations

17 March 2021 | Ella Cockbain, associate Professor at the UCL Department of Security and Crime Science, discusses her experience and failures with media relations. Specifically, about handling media as a researcher, the do’s and don’ts of social media and how to successfully disseminate research through this channel.


Messed Up! 4: Painful Presentations

24 February 2021 | Professor Kate Bowers, director of UCL’s Jill Dando Institute and Department of Security and Crime Science, discusses her experience and failures with presentations. Specifically, about the anxiety of talking about our research, the importance of striking a balance being complex yet succinct and how we can improve our presentations skills.


Messed Up! 3: Fund Fiction

13 January 2021 | Professor Paul Gill, senior lecturer at the Department of Security and Crime Science, discusses the hacks, successes and failures behind research funding applications


Messed Up! 2: Failing the Viva

9 December 2020 | Recent PhD graduates Dr Michael Frith and Dr Chris Lin discuss what to expect (and not to expect) during the final viva – and how to handle it


Messed Up! 1: Effective Writing

11 November 2020 | Professor Richard Wortley, the former director of the Jill Dando Institute and UCL Department of Security and Crime Science, discusses his experience and failures with effective writing.