Episode 2: Sexual Violence in Racial Capitalism

so what was your transition then from student to academic career academic

First of all, I started working at Brighton University as a part-time hourly paid lecturer.

And I was working in the education department because my PhD is actually in sociology of ed.

I worked there for a good six or nine months, I think, after I'd finished my PhD.

And then a job came up at Sussex Uni, which was a part time, sorry, a fixed term research grant buyout cover to come in and cover the directorship of gender studies for nine months and to cover the module teaching of the person that was on the grant.

So I got that.

And it was again, it was a different time.

I was able to have my contract extended a couple of times because of teaching needs in the department.

And I was eventually made permanent under the EU legislation of the time, which I think was at that time three years continuous service.

It might have even been two.

I wasn't there a huge amount of time.

So I was incredibly lucky.

I've been incredibly lucky throughout my career, really, to have a funded master's.

Otherwise, I would never have done one.

A funded PhD, otherwise I would never have done one.

And then to be able to get my job made permanent under EU law, otherwise I would have been on fixed term contracts for a long, long time.

Yeah, it's certainly like, you know, like I'm still like right at the beginning kind of of my journey, but it certainly seems like a lot of people now start out by taking like short term contracts here and there for quite a long time.

It is.

And, you know, unfortunately, that seems to be the way that universities operate now.

And I wish it would change.

I hope it would change.

Yeah, when I started, that was less common, although there was a lot more use of part time hourly paid lecturers at that time.

And when I started at Sussex, there were a few people, and by people I mean women, who had been on fixed-term contracts for decades.

So it wasn't unheard of, but it's certainly much more common now.

It's a very different field.