The Australian Association of Writing Programs

I can see just how wonderful such a position would be in the Community sector; with the ability to meld theory and practice. What a shame this is another sector of casualised grant reliant employment and woefully low remuneration. But hey, that what arts grads are used to anyway. How good to be away from overt institutional politics (or at least begging those above to recognise and reward arts-based practice).

This could be a really generative area to pursue as a career and it will allow you to mainatin some semblance of work/life balance  (given that the role of childrearer/worker falls disproportionately at the feet of women workers). Despite seemingly equal opportunity in employment, the reality of paid maternity leave for casuals and contract staff across all areas of endeavour, particularly the arts, is something I fear I may not live to see.

Happy juggling, you are not alone. And should you decide on child rearing... remember no-one can do it all, not even the early feminists who theorised that we could.

Vahri - I have such sympathy with your posting (and sorry taken a while to get to - after moving house we had no internet and I came down with whooping cough! - argh - advice - get vaccinated! - as an adult that means re-vaccination) - my own path to jobs through study has been up and down; included permanency with part-time academic position in allied field (academic writing) that I threw away in order to take up running a tafe Professional Writing course - only to find tafe so culturally different as to be a different planet (oh, and that a manager with no teaching background wanting to replace all my 30 p/t writer staff with purely online courses and replace me with an IT redeployee) mmm... so, back to finish the fud - and i'm frustrated with sessional tutoring in cw - find it more satisfying to teach communication to engineering students - but that's because my husband is on staff in english, so it's all too political (ie - don't employ the wife - even tho i have a much longer association with teaching there!) argh. Well, now to take child no. 4 off to doc to also get tested for whooping cough. Will log on later in day

courage!

Kate

I understand just how frustrating it is to attempt to carve out an academic career in CW. Despite having many Postgrad programs and many students the nature of academic employment at present is very much casualised, with ever increasing sessional positions advertised to take up the bulk of the teaching load, particularly undergraduate. Then should one wish to pursue ongoing research in CW it necessitates a pay cut to be a Research Asssitant as there are very few Postdoctoral research fellowships in the discipline. The best-case scenario is often a part-time contract combinging the teaching with an expectation of undertaking your own research and publication or very short fixed-term contracts. This is not exclusive to CW in Universities but prevalent across many creative arts based disciplines.

Also we need to challenge oursleves to be honest: Do we really want to teach? Or do we want to write and if so why do we feel that the academy has an obligation to support us through our chosen profession? Surely one size does not fit all. Perhaps academia is not what we all imagine. Just because we have graduated does not necessarily mean we are tempramentally ready to join the academic fray. What looks like good pay and conditions from the outside often proves not to be the case, with administrative loads eating into leisure time, marking and corection, course updating and revising of lecture material often done at the weekend, endless meetings to atend during work hours, additional research and creative work done outside core University teaching hours. And the ever present push for refereed publications, creative publication, and the quest for Competitive research grants.

What would you say if I implied that the hourly rate in real terms would be closer to $ 20 per hour if all time spent on work related tasks are accounted for? Does that represent work/life balance?

Many of us could be working a freelance manuscript assessors for our state-based writer centres. We could be freelance editing for specialist magazines (think Over 50s news, Angling mags, caravanning mags). Look up the current Margaret Gee's Media Guide for private enterprise opportunities to write and edit. Then there are the various Government departments and NGOs who employ writers, and Corporate writing. Perhaps we cannot all be expected to write the next great Australian novel, or create a new benchmark for sales of Australian poetry anthologies. Just maybe we need to do grunt work, whilst writing for passion in our own time. After all, isn't this how all creative artists survive in Australia?

And then again there is teaching? Can't we all remember an inspirational teacher that 'turned us on' to literature, drama, or the pursuit of knowledge for knowledge sake? Don't our young people deserve a mentor like those we were privileged to have?

Perhaps life after fud is no bed of roses but is it anyway postgraduation?

I for one remain optimistic that my skills are worthwhile and will be of use in whatever I do.

i was intrigued to read in the latest union news mag for part-timers the advert warning applicants for jobs to Uni of Canberra - the union's position is that casualisation of the workforce and short-term contracts are not good for workers - i agree. I don't think undergrads in cw necessarily get the right 'teachers' when they have depts compulsorarily employing the cw postgrads to teach. You're right - they may not have teaching skills, nor even care about teaching. Personally, I'm horrified at permanent staff who have no teaching qualifications, too! And the tension between writing time and teaching time is never absent. I see first hand how poor the work-life balance is for academics (am married to one) and also value how crucial a good teacher can be to his/her students. I suppose, for me, I will always value my 'teachers' too. Certainly, I see lots of postgrads expecting work. I'd rather departments were filled with good strong long-term staff members who were committed to their positions and students. I'll be happy to move on out of here at the completion of my fud, I can tell you! (and I know I'm an excellent teacher)

Writers who teach, teachers who write, students who teach, researchers who teach... these are all such interesting tensions. i'm not sure i have anything new to add to the points made by kd-d and c-ac in these comments. I wanted to write and offer an update on my community services position now that the role is over, and i'm back to juggling casual academic contracts this semester.

The job turned into a fascinating one: to write and implement a project to engage 20 teenage boys, half from a private Islamic college and half from a state high school. my learning curve was a steep one and my insights, many. i'd like to comment on some of the tensions i encountered in terms of differing educational paradigms. there was that between the two highschools, where one valued participation, unity, inclusivity, communalism; and the other, accountability, professionalism, individuality and critical thinking. and there was that between an outcomes-based government administration and funding body, and a process-driven services organisation implementing the funded work. so much is lost in translation.

perhaps as a creative (writer) within tertiary institutions i'm especially attuned to the lapses here, the false efficiencies of an outcomes focus, the faux feel-good of a participatory process. is it really so strange to marry the two, or move between them?

Vahri, that seems an insightful assessment to me! I imagine you'll be snapped up for more work along those lines. I can't wait to feel 'post-PhD' - even if it has all those difficulties associated - at least it will be post... yeserday I was discussing with a friend how focus can be obtained (hers directed not towards study but rather, spirituality). Is it our house move, my residual nasty cough or just the wild wind that makes me feel flat today about my thesis. My bum's on the seat, but I'm not living the doctoral moment... All part of the journey, I daresay you'll say. I imagine I'm on the train that opened the revitalised service past our place - the tracks were fine but technical difficulties delayed the engine itself... I'll go have lunch to try stoking some fire

That seems like a challenging and interesting project. You are in a unique position to explore it.

Kate,

I agree with you on the nexus between teaching and academia. I think that a lot of students are let down by some teaching (or lack of teaching) practices.

In terms of casualisation of the workforce, my concern with the Union's position on the new contracts at UC is that it only caters for the elite academics (ie one's with tenure) while neglecting a large portion of lower ranked academics who are on sessional/short term contract work already.

Universities, it seems, are happy to let the casual workforce blow out, and make tenure harder and harder to achieve. The union it would seem is representing the tenured, full time academics, while neglecting the vast sea of casual academics out there, many who are only paid for half the year (if they are lucky enough to pick up work).

While not wanting to endorse the universities position entirely, it seems from this perspective that it may create more permanent long term opportunities for early career academics, which would hopefully lead to a more stable and higher quality teaching cohort.

I hope lunch helped Kate although i suspect the universe might be telling you to take a break. That's the trouble with the PhD - it becomes all consuming. They say the best way to get through is to treat it like a job - you know 9 - 5 but in my experience you never leave it behind at the end of the day. It sort of inhabits you but you know the crazy thing is, now that I have finished and I pick up that beautiful bound volume and read, particularly the exegesis, I almost have no memory of writing it. I recall the struggle to perfect every work, to grasp the obtuse theory and to find ways to translate my thoughts and ideas to the page but when i read it it's as if some other (highly academic, learned and confident) person wrote it. Do I know that person?

I bet that didn't help you one tiny bit.

Oh Shane - I daresay you have a story to tell and I'd love to hear it - what has your experience been?

yes, thanks Sandra, it did - and amazingly each day is a new one, isn't it...I've been thinking about grant applications. In a couple of weeks I'll be helping launch a 7th book for writers this year. I'm getting good at speeches. I've also been asked to write letters of support for more grant applications than before. As with launches (protocol: if you ask someone to give a speech, or even be the MC - please thank them - and present them with a bottle of wine / bunch of flowers / even box of choccies; provide them in advance with a copy of the book (don't just say, 'but you've read the stories/poems in ms'...) AND have a running order schedule of timing - who speaks when for how long - and how to pronounce names /have bios/ some pointers about necessary things you want mentioned - and if you are to speak - then prepare your own speech - it's crucial to be prepared!) grant applicantions need preparation - if you ask someone to support your appln you need to provide not just the idea for the project, (sometimes I've not even been given that till I asked) but dot pts of rationale behind it, outcomes, specific things you'd like said - or for the supporter to think about. My sense is that the grants that get up that i've supported have had writers thinking about the big picture - they think about what the funding body would wonder about - the finances, acquittal, ability to get the project done. I suggest if you haven't applied for any yet, and you're in that post-fud stage, you need to start - and if you can get hold of a course on project management that might help. Go to the sessions that say state/territory govs put on about getting grants - ie - do the homework. Maybe successful applicants could share their stories -- please?

Surprisingly Kate,my experience has been quite positive in terms of casual tutoring. My expectations have been exceeded really. I've had excellent support from staff and some great students and colleagues to work with.

But I look around at colleagues and friends I've known over the years (including my partner for a few years) who have been on the sessional/short term contract treadmill, and they lead their lives ruled by deep seated uncertainty, and the nagging doubt that they aren't 'good enough' to get a 'real' (ie tenured) job, let alone if they have any work for the next year/semester/month.

I'm sure we all know, or are, people in this position. The long term effects on professional development on things like teaching practice, let alone research practice, must be enormous.

I feel 'time' has been a theme for me this four weeks and a bit of posting as student editor of the month - I'm sure the physicists amongst us would have more cogent things to say about it - but though it's flown for me 'this month' has been a big one - moving house, getting whooping cough (and I've just unpacked boxes with the children's immunisation records, and yes, they are all up-to-date - even the 9yo who like me has succumbed) and most importantly for me in my fud journey, being granted a new supervisor for this last stage of my studies - one who seems to know what he's on about and who has helped me refine the thrust of my thesis. Thank goodness! This all on top of worrying where money will come from to fund it all then getting a p/t job, which will help with the dosh, but interfere with the time to stick my bottom on the chair in front of the doctoral screen. I know each quotidian concern may be prosaic, but I bet we all have our feet in the dirt with such reality, our spirits soaring with the study and the writing and the craft in times of grace. That word, time again - so signing off, I wish you all that grace that comes with the creative force. Winter should be no more, but with this new cavernous house (and I'm not complaining - at last I get my own 'study' - though I refuse to call it a study since i want it to be much more) so chilly in the hills I'm up early to stoke the grate and coax into life another fire so we can be warm as we prepare for the day. May your sap rise and writing force spring into action & be with you for the company you keep - Kate D-E

At the begining of the fud, it seems to stretch out to infinity but as the end looms the days don't seem to have enough hours to attend to the various disruptions life throws our way. I thought I would have all this leisurely time being paid to read, reflect and write. I have ended up wasting so many hours just worrying about financial survival, political interference, lack of recognition for creative writing in the academy, and other such debilitating head spaces. How time has disappeared. I guess this is all part of the early career researcher/academic training; on how to meet deadlines, stay clear headed and have a work life balance. Well on that score I'm failing miserably. It is a cliche to say money doesn't buy happiness but as a scholarship recipient (not annually indexed to cpi) and only $2,500 research grant funding over three years, I know for certain that a lack of money ensures unhappiness and stress. Wouldn't it be nice to be a valued doctoral scholar supported on a reasonable level of remuneration with options for post-doctoral employment or grant funding? Correct me if I am wrong but isn't that how things operate in STEM disciplines?

Are we all just seen as a quick and easy way to bring ERA points into the Unis with them making minimal financial investment in us, as serious scholars? I had thought that through organisations like CHASS, AAWP and AAH, we had made progress in  the recognition stakes, at least at government policy level. However, in practice the worries and financial uncertainties referred to by Kate and myself amongst others show where the systemic discrimination against the creative industries really lies. I cannot pretend that the number of women chosing our Industry and discipline is totally unrelated to this lack of professional recognition on  the part of our academies. Gendered attitudes do impact on opportunities and dollar valued attributed to diciplines and careers and since the 70s we have made little advancement in redressing this discrimination in the workplace.

Keep writing and blogging, Kate. We do have the power of the pen (and keyboard) at hand.

yep and yep - ditto on last legs of a shortened scholarship (that sounds odd!) and panicking with finances - saw the light in the wee hours of sleeplessness overnight and will not take up the job teaching 15yos... I would never get time here in my precious postgrad room - which I could never get to before when I worked at tafe or even last yr & half teaching on campus (let alone off  - across the other side of this long-drawn out town). Consequently this a.m. announced to husband we'd have to take out further credit (if we can!) to survive, that me getting the degree was the family's best chance of better income (surely!). So, I watch with interest to see posts from new editor of month, and promise to attend to my studies first and foremost. All the best and thanks for good wishes, Kate

The thing is, we are torn between the need to write and the need to have a way of paying for everything that allows us the luxury of writing. If we can blend the two and make money from our writing, then we are doing well, surely? This is the core issue with my PhD project "From Idea To Income". I want to develop a system anyone can apply and go from having an idea, story, report, essay or whatever, and turn it into income. 

I like the idea of working with someone else in a related field, in my case it would be IT. I provide the concept and the writing and they handle the technical side of things. And that takes care of three years of bills via the stipend or whatever they call the money paid to a PhD candidate. Then what?

That means that, for me, if my exegesis is worth the stipend, I apply it to making an income from my writing. Which would save me having to teach! Cheers Perry

Don't overlook journalism/freelance feature writing as a bread-and-butter option. I'm doing it 2 days a week (alongside finishing the PhD, which is creative non-fiction) and am relishing the variety of subjects (some assigned, some chosen) , the gratifyingly quick write-edit-publish cycle and the sheer joy of having someone pay me for something that I'd almost be willing to do for free. It is heaps more fun than marking or teaching, imho.

I have just finished the MA at Swinburne and wondering (or wandering in my case) what to do next.  There are many options which interest me - and for very different reasons.

Just because we have studied writing and have a passion for writing absolutely anything, doesn't mean we are only writers, and nothing else. 

Whether we eventually teach/lecture, write books and papers or become journalists or on-line communicators, that is not who we are - we are much more than our jobs.

A PhD has great authority and marketing clout when writing text books, for entering academic and community service, and when mixing it with leading-edge researchers.  But so does studying another unrelated qualification to broaden subject awareness.

A PhD may be gained purely as a personal challenge.  By its very definition, each PhD adds value to life and the university - and so has a unique purpose.

Whatever the reason - it is a highly sought after award, recognised for its personal sacrifices to pursue an often elusive (and occasionally illusive) goal.

Does anyone know of a PhD student who had lots of fun doing their research project and thesis?

Or, what is the strangest PhD that anyone has heard of?

- Stefan