This workshop will discuss strategies for building a clear research narrative to contribute to building a competitive CV whilst doing a PhD or being an ECR in the everchanging and increasingly demanding academic labour market. Building a coherent research narrative and trajectory is paramount, as is building a network, where the emphasis is on the work, not the net. 

We will cover aspects of career building that resonate with the different sectors of academic work: Teaching, Research, Administration, and Service. We will be drawing upon our observations and experiences from balancing PhD and being a casual/contract academic; getting an ongoing position and then performing roles such as being on job interview panels, group leader, editing journals, and being a research centre director. 

The workshop will also look at how to ensure to account for career interruptions and other obstacles that are normal in academia. 

Presenters

Steven Threadgold is an Associate Professor of Sociology and the Director of the Newcastle Youth Studies Centre at the University of Newcastle, Australia. His research focuses on youth and class, with particular interests in unequal and alternative work and career trajectories; underground and independent creative scenes; cultural formations of taste, and financial practices and fintech. Steve is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Youth Studies, and on the Editorial Boards of The Sociological Review, DIY, Alternative Culture & Society, and Journal of Applied Youth Studies. His latest book is Bourdieu and Affect: Towards a Theory of Affective Affinities (Bristol University Press). Youth, Class and Everyday Struggles (Routledge) won the 2020 Raewyn Connell Prize for the best first book in Australian sociology. His latest edited collection with Jessica Gerrard is Class in Australia. He is currently leading an ARC DP called Young People, Fintech Use and Future Financial Security. Contact at steven.threadgold@newcastle.edu.au 

Julia Coffey is an Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Her research focuses on youth and gender, with particular interests in feminism, embodiment, and body work practices; and how bodies and identity are mediated through digital technologies and environments. She currently leads an Australian Research Council Discovery Project exploring young people's digital presentation and image-editing practices. She is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Youth Studies, Qualitative Research, and Journal of Applied Youth Studies. She is the author of Body Work: Youth, Gender and Health (Routledge) and edited or coauthored titles Learning Bodies (Springer, with Helen Cahill and Shelley Budgeon), Youth Sociology (Red Globe Press, with Steve Roberts, Alan France, and Cathy Waite) and Gender in an Age of Post-truth Populism (Bloomsbury, with Penny Jane Burke, Rosalind Gill, and Akane Kanai. Her latest book is Everyday Embodiment: Rethinking Youth Body Image (2021, Palgrave Macmillan). Contact at jula.coffey@newcastle.edu.au