NECTAR Casual Staff Awareness Week 2019

Of the just over 11,000 employees at ANU, 6,929 are casually employed (ANU Athena Swan Bronze Award accreditation). Many of these casuals have achieved great things and contributed to the excellent teaching and research at ANU as well as invested their service into the University.

Yet many non-casual ECAs have little knowledge of their casually employed peers and the contributions they make to the University. Myths and misunderstandings of what it means to be a casual are common. To be casually employed means not having access to any form of leave including sick leave, contracts as short as 4 months and lack of access to most forms of institutional funding, training or support.

Today you can learn more about some of the passionate and dedicated ECAs in casual positions at ANU who share their 2019 highlights and their unique contributions to the University. In doing so, we do not mean to overlook the challenges that casual staff face. Rather, by showcasing their stories, we celebrate the outstanding work being done by casual staff and seek to show the diversity of ECAs employed at ANU. And we hope that increased understanding of the experiences of casual academics will help lead to a more inclusive community at ANU.

Rebecca Gidley

Find out how Rebecca deals with the challenge of conveying the horror that victims of human rights violations suffer without risking the welfare of her students, what reviewers thought of her first book and how she found support, community and advocacy in NECTAR. More...

Juan Wang

Learn more about why moving to Japan opened new doors for Juan, what it means to teach at CCE and how Juan contributed to one of the University’s partnership projects, the ANU-China Scholarship Council Program. More...

Jennie Mallela

Find out how Jennie’s research made an impact in the real world, what it means to be a “Superstar of STEM” and why Jennie’s students have a huge smile on their face when they lift their heads out of the water. More...

Bhavani Kannan

Learn more about why Bhavani considers herself lucky to be able to teach in the same course for an extended period of time, how she channels the tortoise in the race towards a PhD and why being accepted into her first international conference was a big deal. More...

Melissa Hickey

Find out why teaching wasn’t on the radar for Melissa five years ago, why she has weekly team meetings with her students and why she felt moved almost to tears in week 12. More...

Negar Davari Ardakani

Learn more about why Negar stepped outside her comfort zone, why learning Persian is about more than learning a language and how generosity, empathy and respect foster a collaborative practice. More...

Nick Wodzinski

Find out why Nick decided to join a startup company, why he hosts his consultation times at the CBE Venture Lab and how he achieved his goal of student outcome focused teaching. More...

Yun Zhou

Find out how Yun uses a creative activity to teach directional expression in Chinese and what stick people have to do with it. More...

David Leaney

Learn more about why David, Managing Director of a consultancy firm, spends extra time outside his 40 hours a week working to teach at the ANU College of Business and Economics, how he creates real-life learning experiences for his students and what Swedish furniture has to do with it all. More...

Shuyu Zhang

Find out why Shuyu thinks that language teaching should be carried out with a vision, why communicating in a language appropriately is more important than speaking in perfect grammar and learn more about Shuyu’s thoughts on technology-enhanced learning. More...