I work as a community coordinator and project manager in various volunteer-led projects and grassroots collectives/campaigns. I consider myself capable of navigating complex, unpredictable and stressful organisational processes. It turns out that the Academy can be as chaotic as a workplace! However, I certainly function better in a well-organised and productive environment and strive to create a shared purpose and coherent framework among colleagues (rather than fragmented, ad hoc actions).

To illustrate, the last academic year began in the absence of a programme coordinator and several team members. Encouraged by my former colleagues, I took the initiative to develop a (nearly) complete curriculum, syllabus and structure for all three years of the programme. While some of it is inherited and reused from previous years, there are new components that still need to be worked out in detail and tested. [see full New Earth Syllabus]

More recently, as new colleagues have joined our team, I have seen my role among my colleagues as facilitator of meetings, coordinator of curriculum development and manager of information/communication flows. This has led to some specialisation, with other colleagues taking on the role of first contact with students (something I am not always the most reliable at). Although I have noticed that this division of labour reproduces conventional gender roles (where women are expected to provide emotional labour and men claim leadership positions), my colleagues have assured me that this has not been a problem.

Specifically, I find great ease and comfort in drafting the course plan and assignment specifications, anticipating future communications with students (such as reminders about practicalities, deliveries and adjusted expectations), and setting up the information infrastructures where we pool our resources, planning, updates, feedback and grades. My intention for the coming year is to empower my colleagues with the tools I use, so that I can be replaced without disrupting already established workflows.