The Department of Criminology (University of Manchester) Review of the Academic Year 2022-23

This year brought many achievements for the Department of Criminology, including welcoming new faculty, reaching teaching milestones, securing research grants, and receiving prestigious awards. As we enter a new academic year, we celebrate these triumphs while keeping our sights set on the future.
 

Welcoming new staff

We are excited to welcome two exceptional new members of staff to the department.

• Dr Landon Kuester, Lecturer in Criminology.
• Dr Jo Hill, Lecturer in Criminology.
   

Welcoming a new Head of Department

The Department of Criminology profoundly thanks Professor Judith Aldridge for her exemplary leadership as Head of Department. Under her direction, the department grew substantially while upholding a warm and collegial environment. Professor Aldridge consistently provided encouragement and support to staff and students, fostering a strong sense of community. We are grateful for her commitment to building an inclusive and thriving department culture.

As we move from strength to strength, we warmly welcome Professor Rose Broad as she takes on this leadership role.
 

Commitment to innovative teaching and scholarship

We'd like to take a moment to express our heartfelt gratitude to Dr Bill Hebenton for his outstanding contributions during his over 30-year tenure at the university. While he has officially retired, Bill maintains an honorary appointment and remains closely tied to the department. Throughout his career, Bill has significantly influenced the field of comparative criminology, focusing primarily on East Asia. His expertise spans contemporary criminal justice topics, such as sexual crime, sentencing, and the enforcement of judicial penalties. He has published over 85 articles, 16 book chapters, 6 books, and numerous teaching materials and reports.

Bill's criminological research has received funding from institutions like the Home Office, the US Department of State, the European Union (through the Falcone Programme), the British Academy, the British Council, and the Nuffield Foundation.

Among his many achievements, Dr Hebenton was a research affiliate and steering committee member for the Manchester China Institute. He was President of Association of Chinese Criminology and Criminal Justice in the United States (ACCCJUS). Further, he is a Series Editor for Palgrave Advances in Criminology and Criminal Justice in Asia and has been a valued editorial board member for various academic journals.

In recent times, Bill has guided over twelve PhD students, mainly focusing on China and Greater China. His innovative teaching style will be profoundly missed by our students.

We'd also like to acknowledge Dr Will Floodgate, who is stepping down after three commendable years as the BA Criminology Programme Director. Under his leadership, the programme saw considerable growth and consistent excellence.

Looking ahead, we're thrilled that our Criminology staff, Professor Judith Aldridge, and Dr Will Floodgate are pioneering the Staying Safe Programme. This harm-reduction-oriented drugs education initiative is the first of its kind in the UK.

Furthermore, we are excited to launch the "Talking Teaching with Criminologists" podcast, steered by Dr Jon Shute and Dr Helen Nichols from the University of Hull, which will feature several of our lecturers.

Our commitment to community outreach remains strong. We're proud of our recent, highly attended employability events that showcased alumni, criminal justice professionals, and police interactions. We look forward to building these networks in the year to come with further employability events.

The first cohort of our new MSc Financial Crime and Compliance in Digital Societies graduated this summer. This innovative distance-learning programme is for senior financial crime compliance, risk and governance professionals and is run in collaboration with the International Compliance Association. It is the first programme of its kind in the world and has attracted students from all over the world, working in financial services, multinational media organisations, regulatory bodies, and more.

We are also pleased to introduce the BA Global Social Challenges, launching this academic year. This innovative transdisciplinary degree, spanning the entire School of Social Sciences, is spearheaded by Dr Jon Davies and Dr Felipe Neis Araujo from our Department. Professor Julia Buxton helped develop this course, and Dr Landon Kuester and Dr Jo Hill will jointly lead one of the core units, “Current Issues of Social Injustice”. We eagerly await the arrival of our inaugural student cohort.

Finally, we'd like to extend our warmest congratulations to all our Criminology graduates this year. We're immensely proud of your achievements and are eagerly anticipating the positive impact you'll make in the world. Best of luck in your future endeavours.

Teaching awards and achievements

Promotions:

• We're delighted to announce the promotion of Rose Broad to the position of Professor.
• Congratulations to Dr David Buil-Gil, Dr Will Floodgate, and Dr Emily Turner, who have all been elevated to the role of Senior Lecturer.

Recognition:

• Congratulations to Dr Katie Benson and Dr Caroline Miles, who both has earned the University of Manchester's Exceptional Performance Award.
• We're proud to spotlight Jessica Williamson, this year's recipient of the ‘TA of the Year Award’, and Oliver Hulmes who has been honoured as the ‘First-Year TA of the Year’.

Our Criminology-specific peer mentoring initiative marked its inaugural year with resounding success. We'd like to recognise the exceptional work of our student coordinators: Elin Penry, Alenzandra Andrei, and Yu Inamura. Their dedication was celebrated with the Student Coordinators of the Year award at the Peer Support Celebration Evening.
 

Student awards and achievements

A special acknowledgment to Aiste Timukaite, who has been honoured with The UK Data Service Dissertation Award. Her exemplary research investigates the factors leading to the under-reporting of violent crime. We also extend our warmest congratulations to Dr Amy Cortvriend, who successfully passed her PhD Viva this year. Pete Duncan was recognised as the PGR Rep of the Year at The Student Union Awards, and our PGR team also organised and successfully held a workshop for ECRs, titled 'White-collar and Organisational Crime: New Ideas, Directions, and Perspectives.' Great job to everyone involved!
 

Research Awards and Achievements

Throughout this year, our department has achieved remarkable research milestones. Professor Dave Gadd was distinguished as a runner-up at the ESRC Celebrating Impact Awards for his pivotal work on domestic abuse. Dr Lisa Williams unveiled her 'Behind Closed Doors' exhibition, which brilliantly showcases her research on drug stashes, and the exhibition has since embarked on a national tour. Our former colleague, Professor Juan Medina Ariza, collaborated with Dr Reka Solymosi to release a new book titled Crime Mapping and Spatial Data Analysis using R, published by Routledge. Professors Rose Broad and Dave Gadd have also celebrated the release of their new book, Demystifying Modern Slavery, published by Routledge.

We're proud to be the new home to CRIMRXIV, the premier global open access hub for Criminology, where Professor Judith Aldridge has taken on the role of Director and Dr David Buil-Gil is now serving as Open Criminology Lead.

Congratulations to Dr Jon Davies and Dr Katie Benson who both received awards at the American Society of Criminology - Division of White-Collar and Corporate Crime. Jon received the Young Career Award, and Katie was honoured with the Outstanding Book Award for her research monograph, Lawyers and the Proceeds of Crime: The Facilitation of Money Laundering and Its Control, published by Routledge.
 

Research grants and fellowships

This year, the department has achieved remarkable success, thanks to our collective efforts, we have secured several funding awards and fellowships to support a diversity of research projects.

Dr David Buil-Gil received support from the Open Research Accelerator Fund for ‘CRIMRXIV’ and was a part of the team for the ‘Digital Identity and Life-Course Study (DIALCS)' funded by The Security, Privacy, Identity and Trust Engagement Network Plus (SPRITE+). Dr Nicholas Trajtenberg and his team secured seed funding from the University of Manchester Centre for Digital Trust and Society (UoM CDTS) to research 'demanding justice in the cloud: an analysis of punitive attitudes in social media for traditional and cyber-enabled crime’. Professor Rose Broad and Dr Jon Davies also secured seed funding from UoM CDTS to research modern slavery and digitisation in ‘fast-fashion’ supply networks. Dr Jon Davies was also awarded funds from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority to evaluate their Western Balkans Serious and Organised Crime Community Coordinator Project.

Dr Meropi Tzanetakis was awarded the prestigious Elise Richter Grant by the Austrian Science Fund. In another significant highlight, Professor Nick Lord became actively involved in the consortium for the Manchester Turing Hub, which is focused on accelerating Greater Manchester's digital economy. This venture is particularly targeting AI and skill development in the tech sector, aiming to support and create new start-ups in the region.

Dr Will Floodgate and Professor Judith Aldridge were awarded funds selected to advance to the next phase of their NIHR Innovation Fund to Reduce Demand for Illicit Substance. Additionally, Professor Nick Lord, Dr Katie Benson, Dr Jon Davies, and Dr Tomas Diviak, and Ezra Lampesberger have been recognised for their ‘Manchester-Heidelberg Illicit Finance and Politics Initiative’.

The School of Social Sciences also awarded funds to Dr Lisa Williams, Dr Felipe Neis Araujo, Dr Jo Deakin, Dr Emily Turner, Dr Will Floodgate, and Dr Jon Davies, to enable them to launch an engaging seminar series about race and social justice in the curriculum.

Dr Caroline Miles and Professor Rose Broad were awarded funds from the N8 Policing Research Partnership for to conduct research on the experiences of female runners in collaboration with the Greater Manchester Police and Merseyside Police. Caroline Miles is also embarking on a BA Small Grant project focused on non-intimate femicide, in collaboration with former PhD student Lizzie Cook.

Moreover, several researchers, including Dr Tomas Diviak, Yuanyuan Zhang, Dr Lisa Williams, Professor Judith Aldridge, and Dr Olga Sanchez de Ribera, were recipients of the University of Manchester School of Social Sciences Small Grants. Their projects span from understanding corruption networks, advocating for evidence-based drug reforms, to interventions focused on intimate partner violence in diverse economies.

These achievements reflect our department's dedication to criminological research and its broader impact. Congratulations to everyone for their outstanding work!