On this episode of The Change Up we are joined by Mark Walmsley (@markwalmsley88), who is currently a Lecturer in Humanities and Widening Participation Academic Officer. Mark is someone who has made that rare double shift - moving out of lecturing and then moving back into it again a little bit further down the line - so we were interested to hear about his experiences moving from his PhD to an 'alt-ac' position as a Widening Participation officer, and then how he has found moving back into a teaching role following his move to the University of East Anglia.

Mark provides some really useful details about his work as a Widening Participation Officer and some instructive advice on the kinds of administrative and public service work that PhD students might consider pursuing alongside their research to better equip them for a move into another role following the completion of their doctorate. He also talks about the kind of provisions that were available to him as a PhD student in American Studies, and how relevant the skills he learnt as part of his doctoral work are in his current role.

The Change Up is part of The Precarity Project, which is aimed towards helping UK postgraduate students in American Studies or associated disciplines find their way in, or their way out of the academy.

We'd love to hear from you! If you are interested in being interviewed, if you have comments on this or other episodes of The Change Up, or if you have questions about The Precarity Project as a whole, please get in touch via the project website or on Twitter @PrecarityProj.