Faculty news

At the half-way point of my second year at SCU, I feel very privileged to be working with so many talented and dedicated people.

2019 was a year of learning, understanding and ensuring that the Masters courses, so ably set up by Dr Alex Pelizzon, continued to provide excellent learning experiences for our students. To date, 2020 has been a year of further consolidation and growth. Enrolments are steadily increasing and we have a very capable and stable cohort of teaching staff.

It has been very exciting to roll out the first offering of Advanced Contract Law in Study Period 2. The unit, written by Emma Somerville with help from Associate Professor Jennifer Nielsen, provides students with a comprehensive and practical excursion into the law of contract. The unit was a great success and student engagement was at high levels. Demand for this unit has resulted in the decision to offer it twice yearly.

In other good news, the Dean’s Office has kicked off the Practice Professorial Program. We have engaged nine Practice Professors and taken soundings from staff and students as to the most beneficial ways to employ the program. To date our Practice Professors have undertaken a number of engagements, including presenting to student associations and giving research seminars. We are looking forward to a suite of guest lectures being given in the coming months.

Babbage, Casual Academic & PhD Candidate

For the fourth time running, Ms Babbage managed the high school engagement project known as the Criminal Process Intensive unit over two weekends in February 2020 at the Gold Coast campus.

Emma created a university experience for 29 senior high school students (pictured below), delivering interactive lectures and tutorials with Student Facilitator Joshua Cotton and a guest lecture from David Heilpern. The experience culminated with a Graduation Ceremony and Afternoon Tea with students and their special guests, with the Dean and Head of School presiding, an enormous cake, and local musician Ben Purnell.

Emma tutored the Lismore students in Australian Legal System in Session 1, which included Head Start students, marking the first time the SLJ has offered a Head Start unit for high school students. Emma delivered interactive tutorials face to face and then online with COVID-19. Emma was invited to deliver a Talking Teaching Webinar to all staff about online teaching in June 2020.

As Emma’s PhD research explores the topic of wellbeing, she saw COVID-19 and the transition to working and learning from home, as an opportunity to share her review of scholarly literature on wellbeing. Emma was invited to deliver a wellbeing webinar to the Australian Labour Law Association, followed by a similar webinar to SLJ staff at a Dean’s Debrief session, and then an adapted webinar to SLJ students which she co-hosted with Resident Tutor Julie de Rooy.

Emma and Julie delivered an interactive session and have made the recording available on the Law Student Blackboard site. Emma created a SLJ Staff site dedicated to sharing resources about wellbeing and teaching online.

Emma published a paper arising from her PhD research in Volume 12 of the Journal of the Australasian Law Academics Association. Emma also had a successful In-Candidature Review, which is an important milestone in her PhD journey, and is currently in the third year of her project.