Meet the Profs: Niall

The best part of my job is being in the classroom and interacting with students, especially when you see light bulbs go on over their heads.

As a historian, I am of course firmly convinced of our need to learn from the past, and I am keen to do what I can to help students, and consequently, society, to do so. As a historian of Islam, I am doubly-aware of the need to foster a better understanding of the Muslim world and its history, especially in the light of (at times distorted) portrayals of the faith and its followers in the media.

I have been extremely fortunate in that I have finally managed to secure a full-time position. However, this should not be an exceptional case; all contract faculty should have a clear, guaranteed path to permanency, a decent salary and benefits open to them when they are hired. 

An education system that relies on underpaid, precarious employees whose very precariousness inhibits them from doing the best job that they can serves no-one, be they students, faculty or society as a whole. Short-time financial savings do not add up to long-term benefits to society; they add up to long-term damage.