Humans of Warwick - Dr Elzbieta Titis

Dr Elzbieta Titis

Assistant Professor in Cyber Security, WMG

“My violin was a very special gift from my grandmother.”

“I started playing the violin when I was six years old. My grandmother sacrificed a lot to be able to afford to buy my violin. I've always been appreciative of that, my instrument's something that I've always treasured.

My grandparents also worked hard to send me to music state school back home in Poland. It was a tough school to get into and hard work once you were there. It'd be a full school day, with normal subjects and music lessons too. Then I'd go home for dinner before heading out to another music lesson in the evening. The summer holidays would also be spent mastering the violin.

Learning the violin has shaped me as a person and made me who I am. You've got to be really disciplined if you want to learn to play any instrument, and you've really got to persevere if you want to be good at it. That hard work paid off, and I'd spend the next 20 years as a classical musician. I've been very lucky, playing as part of an orchestra, in a quartet, and as a solo violinist all over the world, and in some amazing buildings. I've played all styles of music too, both classical and entertainment.

I had a contract to play music in Japan for a year, and as a lover of Japanese culture that was very special to me. It was great to experience it first hand, and I really immersed myself in it while I was there. I also played for a few years in the Netherlands when I completed my music studies, at the same institution where André Rieu studied, right in the city where he was born, Maastricht. Some of my friends are still in his orchestra. That's where I met my husband and got married, so you can see that music and playing the violin really led to some great opportunities for me. It was back then when I got to play in a commemorative concert for John Lennon, playing his songs as well as The Beatles. Paul McCartney was supposed to come along, but he couldn't make it in the end, which was a shame.

Academia's always been my other passion, inspired again by my grandmother, who was a highly educated woman. She shaped my longing for knowledge and intellectual curiosity. She'd encouraged me to complete my studies in Sociology and Management in case music wasn't my final destination. I'd received an Erasmus exchange scholarship, which had taken me to the UK for the first time for a research internship at Manchester University. I met my future PhD supervisor and long-term mentor, Professor Rob Procter there. Pursuing a PhD had always been a goal, so when a scholarship opportunity came up, I came back to the UK and joined Warwick in 2016. I've been part of this incredible academic community ever since.

At times, it feels like I've lived two different lives as two different people. I now find fulfilment in my academic work, particularly through research-led teaching that creates real-world impact. I've supervised dissertations that've led to contributions to patent development, the design of professional training programmes, and strategic guidance for non-academic organisations. I call that impact! I’m very proud of my students.”