Launch of MACS and invitation to "Job Market Blues" seminar/workshop at UQ

Media and Cultural Studies Meetings (MACS) – a cross-institutional network of early career researchers, postgraduate students, postdocs, RAs and sessional staff working in Media and Cultural Studies

MACS provide a regular platform for discussing issues relating to these roles as well as an opportunity to contribute to wider debates taking place in the field. MACS is currently active at the University of Queensland and the Queensland University of Technology, and meetings are hosted alternatively across these two institutions.

The idea for the MACS network arose from a sense that PhD students and junior staff are often at a distance from existing forms of collaboration between researchers in different universities within the one city. While much emphasis is placed on the end product of research, and there are plenty of avenues for presenting and publishing our work, the early stages of an academic career involve particular anxieties that can be ameliorated with the support of a community of peers. The MACS group is an attempt to create a space for discussing everything to do with our work aside from the end product, to share accumulated knowledge and resources to gain insight into the options available within our field of research.

To mark the QUT chapter’s launch, I invite you to attend Job Market Blues seminar/workshop at UQ.

Job Market Blues
Friday, 9 October 2009
3:00pm - 4:30pm
Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies, Seminar Room
Level 4 Forgan Smith Tower,
The University of Queensland

Speakers
Dr Jean Burgess is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in John Hartley's Federation Fellowship Program, where she works on cultural participation and user-led innovation in new media contexts, focusing particularly on user-created content and vernacular creativity.

Dr Lisa Gunders is a postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Institute for Creative Industries and Innovation at QUT, where she works on the "New Media Voices in the Australian Values Debate" project.

Of perennial concern to postgraduates, postdocs, sessional teachers, and contract academics alike is the prospect of employment, and competition for a limited number of jobs. Can we expect any change to this situation in the next few years? What are the different possibilities for those seeking employment, and what are the reasonable expectations for those completing PhDs for coming off contracts? We will hear from a number of people with different perspectives on the issue, and different experiences in negotiating the pitfalls.

### Travel arrangements ###

If you are interested in networking with our UQ Colleagues (competitors) and getting insight/discussing employment issues and getting grants etc, a QUT group will be leaving from outside the dancing bean at 2:30pm. Look for Mark Ryan who will be arranging a Taxi courtesy of the ARC Centre of excellence.

For more details, contact Mark Ryan at m3.ryan@qut.edu.au.
For more information:
http://cci.edu.au/events/macs-media-and-cultural-studies-meetings

Best Mark

Dr. Mark David Ryan
Research Associate
Z2 204
Creative Industries Precinct
Queensland University of Technology
Musk Ave, Kelvin Grove
QLD 4059

Mobile: 0400757968
Office no: (07) 31385615
http://eprints.qut.edu.au/view/person/Ryan,_Mark.html