When Research Goes Wrong: Failures, Friction and What We Learn
A BSA Mid-Career Forum Event
16 September 2026 (13:00-14:30 BST)
Online
About the Event
Academic careers are often communicated through moments of success, the familiar "delighted to announce..." posts that celebrate publications, funding awards, promotions, and career milestones. While these achievements matter, they rarely capture the full story of how research unfolds.
This BSA Mid-Career Forum event creates space for a different conversation. Through a series of short provocations, speakers will reflect on projects that stalled, collaborations that became difficult, methods that failed to deliver what was expected, unexpected changes in direction, and the lessons that emerged from these experiences. Rather than focusing on failure itself, the event explores what research friction can teach us about academic cultures, expectations, collaboration, and the realities of contemporary academic life.
The session will combine short talks, audience participation, Mentimeter activities, and small-group discussion. Participants will also be invited to anonymously share experiences, questions, dilemmas, and lessons learned in advance to help shape the discussion around the issues that matter most to them.
Confirmed contributors include Professor Carl May (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine), Professor Angharad Beckett (University of Leeds) and Dr Jill Timms (University of Surrey). Professor Kahryn Hughes (University of Leeds) and Professor Anna Tarrant (University of Lincoln) will draw on their forthcoming SAGE collection, Unexpected Turns in Social Research, which brings together researchers reflecting on what became possible when studies did not proceed as planned.
Hosted by the BSA Mid-Career Forum, this event is designed principally for sociologists navigating the mid-career stage. Discussion will focus on the responsibilities and pressures that emerge as researchers lead projects, manage collaborations, supervise others, pursue funding, and sustain a research identity across increasingly complex roles. Colleagues at other career stages are welcome, but the event is not intended as a research methods or individual project-advice session.
Help us build the event
This event aims to create a more honest conversation about the realities of academic research. Before we meet in September, we'd love to hear about the questions, frustrations, surprises, and lessons that have shaped your own research journey.
You might wish to share:
- a question you'd like speakers to address
- a challenge or frustration you've encountered
- a difficult experience or dilemma
- a project that changed direction unexpectedly
- something you've learned when research didn't go to plan
Contributions may be submitted anonymously and may be used anonymously during the event to help ground discussion in the issues that matter most to participants.
Help us build the event here>>
Registration
This event is free to attend, however, registration is required.