In touch with… Gemma Beale

Gemma Beale – writer, PhD candidate and employee at Flinders’ Australian Industrial Transformation Institute – is focused on the impact of precarious employment on workers’ transitions after the closure of Australia’s automotive manufacturing sector.

What do you do at Flinders University?

I’m based in AITI (Australian Industrial Transformation Institute) at Tonsley where I work one day a week as an administrative jack of all trades and four days on my PhD. My PhD is looking at the impact of high rates of insecure employment on workers transition into new jobs after industry closure – specifically the automotive manufacturing industry’s closure.

Can you briefly describe the career path that took you here?

I think my CV can read a little scattered sometimes but it all makes sense to me. I started in the women’s/crisis/youth sectors where I worked for a little over five years while I was doing undergrad and honours – then I moved into politics for a bit and then the arts – before circling back to do my PhD.

In general, I’ve tried to do work that I think is interesting and socially useful and I’ve been pretty lucky to find that most of the time.

What do you most enjoy about your job?

I’m interested if you are, and I like to learn as much as possible, so it’s good to be in an institute full of intelligent and passionate people; there’s space to aim high.

Also, we do The Age quiz as a team at lunch every day, I rarely know the answers but it’s always pretty nice.

What is something you are proud of?

In 2016 I co-founded The Mary Lee Exchange – it’s a semi-regular conversation series built around Mary Lee’s idea that we should leave the world better than we found it. COVID-19 threw a spanner in the works, but our rule was that we would run events we’d want to attend and so far we’ve achieved that goal.

I also become a regular contributor to The Adelaide Review this year. It’s been a privilege to have a platform to write about (some of) the issues dear to my heart – and its closure in October is a great loss to our ever-diminishing local media landscape.

What does a ‘normal’ day look like to you?

A key component of casual work and a PhD is that there’s rarely a normal day. In general: I try to rock up, be as useful as I can be, then ideally ride my bike home – but if I’m honest I’ve been putting it on the train a lot lately.

How do you like to relax or spend your free time?

I’m lucky to have a lot of clever friends making interesting art and great music so I try to catch as much of that as possible. They say when you love what you do you never work a day in your life – I think that’s exploitative nonsense – but I’ve got a good peer group around me so much of my work is also social.

Posted in
Uncategorised