OD

Lecturing/Honorary Master of Arts, Leeds Arts University 2023

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the challenge.  Starting out as a creative, I was painfully aware of not really having the proper qualifications for the job, in the sense that most of my creative comrades had an advertising degree. I met a few university lecturers through my event, Chicks in Advertising, and they invited me to come and talk to their respective courses. However, what I saw there was probably more of a learning curve for me than the undergrads. 

I was surprised to discover that despite evidence to the contrary in my workplace(s), most of the students in the creative advertising courses were women. This suddenly posed a new problem: it wasn’t that women don’t want jobs in creative. At the very least, they want it more than the men at degree level.

But then why the drop off? My thinking was that while most of the courses I visited were wonderful in their teaching of concepts and craft, the fact remained that there were no female lecturers, or significant role models agency side for the student cohort to aspire to. As the saying goes: you can’t be what you can’t see. 

So began my next side-hustle: lecturing.

 

the work.  Starting at UCLAN in 2018 where I taught second and third year advertising students every Monday for an academic year, to now, where I guest lecture on an adhoc basis for Leeds Arts University, my students have gone on to win awards, and successfully take on the creative world at large. My hope is that my students see me doing everything they’d like to: teaching, working hard in my role and being vocal and active in creative spaces, so they can imagine themselves doing it too. After 5 years, my work was recognised with an honorary master of the arts by Leeds Arts University in 2023 for outstanding contributions to the industry and to academia: definitely one of my proudest achievements to date. From not having the qualifications for the job, to being honorarily overqualified, it's certainly been an education.

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