• This year’s live episode of Writing Wrongs, the podcast from the Aston Institute for Forensic Linguistics, will take place on 28 October 2026
• Dr Elisabeth Carter, associate professor of criminology at Kingston University, London, will discuss romance fraud and using forensic linguistics to tackle it
• She will join hosts Professor Tim Grant and Dr Nicci MacLeod, as well as Dr Rasha Kassem from Aston Business School’s Fraud Research Group.

Dr Elisabeth Carter, associate professor of criminology at Kingston University, London, will be the special guest at a live recording of Writing Wrongs, the podcast from the Aston Institute for Forensic Linguistics (AIFL), on the topic of romance fraud, on 28 October 2026.

Dr Carter is a criminologist and forensic linguist who conducts interdisciplinary research at the intersection of language and the law. Her highly respected leading academic research is used globally to support law enforcement campaigns and drive police operations, particularly relating to fraudulent communications. She works with various agencies including the police, the Home Office, leading banks, INTERPOL, and the United Nations. She regularly features in national and international television and radio series and print media and dissects a different fraud every week in the hit BBC Sounds podcast series Scam Secrets. She has also previously appeared on Writing Wrongs, in series 1.

‘Writing Wrongs Live!: Language and Economic (In)justice’ will be recorded at the atmospheric Steelhouse Lane Lock-Up in Birmingham, UK, a Grade II-listed 19^th century building used to house prisoners before trial in the court next door. It operated until 2016 and now houses the West Midlands Police Museum.

The live recording will take place as part of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Festival of Social Science 2026, an annual, UK-wide, free celebration of the social sciences aimed at non-academic audiences, with a series of events run by higher education institutions. Events cover social science topics ranging from health and wellbeing to crime, equality, education and identity.

In 2026, the theme of the festival is money, finance and the cost of living. The hosts of Writing Wrongs, Professor Tim Grant, and Dr Nicci MacLeod, deputy director of AIFL, therefore decided to focus on romance fraud.

Alongside Dr Carter will be Dr Rasha Kassem, head of Aston Business School’s Fraud Research Group. Dr Kassem is an internationally recognised expert in fraud, auditing, governance and forensic accounting with an overarching goal of improving how fraud is understood, prevented and detected, and regularly provides comments to the media.

Dr MacLeod said:

“We are thrilled to be taking Writing Wrongs Live back to the Lock-Up. Attendees will get to be part of the show as well as enjoying this atmospheric venue, checking out the old police cells and exploring the history of policing in Birmingham.”

Dr Carter said:

“I’m really looking forward to joining Tim, Nicci and Rasha for this very special live recording of Writing Wrongs. Together, we’ll be unpicking fraud crime scenes through a forensic linguistic, criminological and forensic accounting lens, exploring what language can reveal about how fraud is committed, how trust is manipulated and how offenders construct convincing narratives, right in front of a live audience. I’m excited to bring these ideas to life with the audience as part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science.”

Tickets for ‘Writing Wrongs Live!: Language and Economic (In)justice’ are available free of charge on Eventbrite.

The first Writing Wrongs Live!, in 2025, was a sell-out, and featured Dr Emily Chiang and Dr Ralph Morton to discuss the past, present, and future of forensic linguistics in a preview of their book Forensic Linguistics in the United Kingdom: Origins, Progress and Prospects.