What's in a name? (or, Marketing Your Casualness)

Pictured: casual academics preparing for semester.

Is it irony that a casual academic blog sees an infrequent, delayed posting schedule because its writer is off being a casual academic?

Turns out juggling three universities during exit of one semester and entry into another leaves little time for much of anything. Now that things are stabilising, I should have a bit more leeway to write on being a casual academic.

Or should that be, being a sessional tutor? Or being a teaching academic? Or an adjunct? Or a Professional Articulator? (I may have made the last one up but I kinda like it now)

Or rather, "I heard you like names, here's one you should never put on a CV."

When putting together job and grant applications, what do I call myself? Part of this might come down to what my literal title at each institution is: for example, at UNSW I'm a casual academic, while at Macquarie I'm a sessional staff member. On a literal level, I am certainly a casual academic and/or a sessional staff member. Disregarding workload or responsibilities, I am an unsalaried, untenured teacher working in an academic field in the university sector. I am employed on a semester-by-semester basis. No dispute there. Both these titles mean essentially the same thing, a point highlighted by a tenured colleague recently suggesting I classify myself as "sessional" rather than "casual" on my CV for an application I'm working on. But even though they're similar, they can be received in inherently different ways.

Putting aside the awkward conversations that come with explaining your employment status to non-academics ("No, grandma, I'm not a Christmas casual"), there is a perception of detachment around the "casual" part of the name. Part of that almost certainly links to some of the more traditional associations we have with the word "casual", namely seasonal retail and hospitality work. While casual academics can have larger workloads and responsibilities than a lot of the folks working infrequent shifts at Woolworths, the connection is still there (and as a veteran of 7 years and 6 Christmases' worth of casual retail work, I have nothing but respect and admiration for said folks). The notion of "casual" as a word implies something not ingrained or fully integrated in a system; one of Cambridge Dictionary's definitions is "not regular or fixed". In a sense, that's certainly true of casual academics, being an unfixed (or in this case, impermanent) part of the system they're teaching in.

I don't know if they're "casual academics", but they look like "casual Friday academics." (I'm sorry)

But in another, it falls short, given that many of us are consistently working at our universities each semester as a distinctly fixed part of that system. Some of us spend years. At least one colleague of mine has been a casual at their main university (as well as several others) for well over a decade, every semester, without fail. This can lead to yet another title - the "long-term casual" or "permanent casual", someone who is still a casual yet is a regular fixture of their institution. Kate Cantrell and Kelly Palmer, writing earlier this year in response to the oft-cited recent Conversation piece on casual academia, pointed out these titles as preferable for classifying the kind of work we do, despite both titles being "oxymorons". Even though titles like "long-term casual" and "permanent casual" are more indicative, that word, and its implication of detachment, is still there.

Obviously, you don't want to be deceitful, and it doesn't pay to gild the lilly too much. I'm not suggesting we need to cast aside the reality of our casual employment, or try to articulate our job histories as other than what they are (though that Professional Articulator title I made up is sounding more and more appealing). A friend once suggested I call myself a "teaching academic": true in the strictest sense, given teaching is my core focus, but not a widely-used title. Another tenured colleague of mine, who gave me invaluable support in securing one of my first academic job interviews a while back, told me that those who are in the upper echelons of the university system don't judge the word "casual": they know who we are and what we do, and what it means, and that in many ways can have the opposite effect. So better just to say what I am.

But even so, I'm given to wonder how well "casual" articulates the reality of precarious university work. Because in addition to not quite hitting the mark in describing people who are "not regular or fixed", the word fails to fully account for the passion, diligence and engagement that many casual academics, sessional staff and Professional Articulators routinely demonstrate in their work. At the end of the day, whatever the official title, we treat our job as anything but "casual".

Pictured: casual academics when semester begins.

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Given that this blog is meant to be a discussion, rather than just a broadcast, I want to make sure to include other voices here besides my own. You are, as always, more than welcome to sing out in the comments, or otherwise get involved on Twitter - my handle is @ChrisComerford3 - but I also want to highlight some of the other folks who are taking the time to spill some ink on these issues, too. And of course, if there's something or someone I've missed, let me know!

So with that in mind, here are a few of the fantastic pieces I came across since last time:

First, Massey University's Kate Bone has put together a solid Conversation piece that not only hits some nails on the head about the uni gig economy, but brings in some (pseudonymous) responses from casuals at the heart of it all. It's heartbreaking, but resonant.

Then, Australian National University's Inger Mewburn sent out an article discussing her own experience with casual exploitation in a recent National Tertiary Education Union newsletter, outlining how full-time staff can better support their casuals.

Finally, further afield in the US, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and Brown University adjunct Philip Eil has written a piece for the Boston Globe comparing uni casualisation to the labour practices of companies like Uber and Nike, prompting readers to really question where American university priorities are in helping out adjunct sessional staff. It's sobering, incisive reading.

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IMAGE REFERENCES:

Casual Friday academics - https://www.dmarge.com/2019/07/how-to-dress-casual.html

Outdated "Yo Dawg" meme - https://imgflip.com/i/ry4wt

Avengers Assemble - https://giphy.com/gifs/nerdist-marvel-endgame-avengers-j2pWZpr5RlpCodOB0d

Avengers charge - https://giphy.com/gifs/nerdist-marvel-endgame-avengers-Z9QGyT1RQL00318Lzz