ACADEMIC CAREERS DR MARILYN BROMBERG
Director of Higher Degrees (Coursework), University of Western Australia How Did you Begin Your Career?
Why Do you Stay in Academia?
I was born and raised in Canada (so, among other things, I am a maple syrup expert and can speak French). My career is not that of a typical academic. I started freelance writing for Canada’s largest newspaper, The Toronto Star, when I was 14 years old. I wrote freelance for the newspaper for about six years.
I have been an academic for about 11 years. I stay in academia because it never feels like work (even the marking). I love teaching and engaging in interesting debate with students and colleagues.
When I studied for my Bachelor of Business Administration (Honours) Degree at the Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto, I worked part-time as a television producer at Matrix Produxions and created and managed an online magazine, On The Wall. After I graduated, I moved to Perth because my boyfriend at the time was from here. I then graduated with an LLB (Dist) from the UWA Law School and commenced working as an articled clerk in a law firm that specialised in commercial litigation on the Terrace. Why Did you Choose to Enter Academia? It was not my idea to become an academic, but I am delightfully grateful that I became one. In February 2011, when I had been a lawyer for almost a year, my mother suggested that I apply for a tutoring job at a law school. She had been an elementary school teacher for about 50 years. It never occurred to me to teach professionally previously. I applied to each law school in Perth, and I was fortunate that the Dean of the University of Notre Dame Australia, Fremantle Campus, offered me a position to lecture Evidence. I accepted the offer.
208
Also, I love that the job is a hybrid of intellectual rigour and creativity. For example, in my Social Media and the Law unit, I decided to teach a lecture on celebrities, social media and the law. I ask students to dress up as a celebrity for the tutorial on the topic. It is always good fun, though admittedly I make a pretty unconvincing Kim Kardashian, notwithstanding my long, black wig and sunglasses. (Other students have dressed as Rhianna, Katy Perry, etc.) In the unit, we also review the AFL’s social media policy and I make my own memes that sometimes feature my Mini Schnauzer, Hero. I am also grateful that as an academic I can choose any legal topic that I find interesting to research. This is as opposed to my work as a lawyer, where typically I cannot choose which cases to work on, unless I run my own firm (or if I am a partner). I research legal issues that I am passionate about, like Body Image Law and social media and the law. I note that I still practice law part-time and hope to for the rest of my career. I enjoy practising law and my students find my ability to discuss relevant stories from practise useful.
