Conference attendance is a feature of contemporary academic work and an accepted way of building academic identities and networks through the dissemination and promotion of ideas, achievements and research. However, our personal experiences have caused us to problematise the traditional conference and consider alternatives which mitigate its…

As researchers working within a neoliberalist academic regime propagated by discourses of responsibilisation, risk and prudentialism, we experienced a dilemma about whether to publicly present views expressed by research participants that critiqued the policy position of the government department that funded the research. Our dilemma was…

This paper provides a rationale for understanding personal/professional identities to support personal/professional learning and positioning in academe and higher education. It explains the importance of women writing and speaking out the stories of their lives (everyday and academic), having their voices heard and responded to, and using embodied…

This paper discusses a research project that aims to address the binary/irony of the central physical and teaching space that women casual academics inhabit within Australian universities, against their lack of presence in the existing discourses around higher education. The invisibility of women casual academics within the discourses around…

Casual academics form the backbone of learning and teaching practice in higher education in many developed countries and in many respects can be considered the norm around which academic policy and practice might be formed. Yet a narrative inquiry into the lived experience of women casual academics within Australian universities reveals that…

This article discusses how a performed drama based on a narrative inquiry into the lived experience of women casual academics in Australian universities is understood by an audience. The audience, principally comprised of casual and ongoing academics, described the drama as authentic and personally recognised many of the main scenarios and…