I also wrote a complete third-year unit in engineering soil science and geotechnology, laying out the first drafts while in hospital for unrelated reasons and completing the work over about four months, pro-bono, on the unwise assumption that I would recoup that work by teaching the subject on my own terms for the next several years.
Predictably, the engineering department was closed down and the unit coordinator took on the teaching workload in all remaining subjects. I was given the tutor role, which attracts a far smaller unit rate of pay and for only the remaining year. I have the tutorial recordings, but they’re not the point of this post. My point is to say, I was treated like a typical entry-level academic in Australia, rather like something you’d find on the bottom of your shoe, and you can judge for yourself my professional commitment and broad knowledge base, which I was once told would be valued.
Was I lied to? Were we all?
