Our learning and teaching community is rich with experience and expertise, and we are excited to harness this in the Teaching Academy. In 2024, over 50 colleagues participated as peer reviewers, mentors, and reviewers of grants, awards, and abstracts, each playing a crucial role in supporting others in their careers and enhancing learning and teaching at Charles Sturt.
We extend our heartfelt thanks to all our mentors and reviewers for their invaluable contributions and support!
Becoming a peer reviewer or mentor is a rewarding journey with numerous personal and professional benefits. As a mentor, you can share your knowledge, experience, and insights with others, helping them grow and succeed. This role allows you to impact someone's life positively and enhances your skills and perspectives.
Here, our past reviewers and mentors share their inspiring stories. They discuss what motivated them to become mentors or peer reviewers, what they enjoy about this, and offer valuable advice for anyone considering stepping into these roles.
We would love to hear from you if you are interested in contributing as a Teaching Academy Reviewer or Mentor in 2025. Please express your interest via the form below by the end of April.
Can you tell us a little about yourself and your professional background? Dr Kristy Campion is an expert in terrorism and security and is widely recognise for her work in terrorism and intelligence in the Australian context. She is the most published and authoritative researcher on the extreme right and extreme left in Australia, and heads the Terrorism and Security Studies program at Charles Sturt University. She led the successful Course Review of the Terrorism program in 2020, and established the only subject on right wing extremism in Australia and one of a few in the world. Her commitment to teaching excellence was noted in her own 2023 Peer Review of teaching.
What motivated you to become peer reviewer? Having a positive experience as a promotion applicant in 2023 motivated me to become a teaching peer review in my own right. It is a valuable opportunity to celebrate the achievements of fellow staff, recognise and encourage teaching excellence, and support others on their promotion journeys. Conversations with fellow staff are essential for lifelong learning in the scholarship of teaching, and I have often found such conversations enrich my own teaching practice.
Could you share any rewarding experiences you’ve had in your peer reviewing journey? I find peer reviewing teaching practice exceptionally rewarding: first, it allows me to give back the support that I received; it allows me to better understand the teaching scope at Charles Sturt; and it encourages me to reflect on my own teaching practice while reviewing that of others.
What advice would you give to someone interested in becoming a peer reviewer? I would encourage anyone who has recently promoted successfully to consider becoming a teaching peer reviewer, and pay forward the support that they themselves received. We all do peer reviews, especially of research, but teaching peer review is equally as important and the process is much more ethical, transparent, and impactful, as it directly contributes to the trajectories and practice of fellow staff.
Can you share a tip or insight that has been particularly helpful for you in your peer reviewing work? A clear schedule is essential to the peer review of teaching, which means knowing the deadlines and ensuring you have set aside the time well in advance. This is not a task which can be rushed, or flicked through. It requires a clear mind and time to properly view, appreciate, and analyse the teaching practice of a colleague.
Dr Kristy Campion
Senior Lecturer
Discipline Lead of Terrorism and Security Studies
Australian Graduate School of Policing and Security
Faculty of Business, Justice and Behavioural Sciences
Can you tell us a little about yourself and your professional background?
I have been involved in teaching and managing in the field of police education with Charles Sturt University School of Policing since 2002 with a short secondment ( 4 yeas between 2018 and 2022 at Rabdan Academy (United Arab Emirates) As a Head of Program at Rabdan Academy for Policing and Security and Academic Director at the School of Policing, CSU I have had the privilege of working with distinguished international academics in the field of policing and highly experienced police professionals. This experience has led me on to a path of both education management and research.
What motivated you to become a mentor or peer reviewer, or both? I have been the recipient of generous mentoring from both CSU Senior Executives and international academics, such as Professors at Cambridge University who were former police officers which has led to success in research and publications. This experience is a key motivating factor in mentoring colleagues to build their capabilities and success. I also appreciate working with staff who are not within my immediate subject area. This has a two-way effect, I learn, and they learn about different topic areas taught at CSU.
Could you share any rewarding experiences you’ve had in your mentoring or peer reviewing journey? Recently, I have had the opportunity to mentor staff through conducting research studies, which have resulted in publication outcomes. The experience has motivated these colleagues to further research endeavors, which they tell me was not initially on their career agenda. I too am grateful for the continual learning I experience from working with experienced colleagues at CSU and pass this onto to those for whom I am mentoring.
What advice would you give to someone interested in becoming a mentor or peer reviewer?As a mentor or peer reviewer one of the key characteristics I have at the centre of the role is to remember I am 'holding their hand' to travel the pathway, it is very easy to fall into the trap of doing the work for the person, however, this is not necessarily the best way to aid their development. I am always mindful that this is 'new' to them and they may not know the questions to ask or indeed what help they need - this is part of our role - to guide the enquiry.
Can you share a tip or insight that has been particularly helpful for you in your mentoring or peer reviewing work? Planning and organisation is one of the key factors in mentoring and peer reviewing, people are busy and often have many conflicting demands on their time, establishing a time table including the checking-in meetings /updates is immensely valuable to aid meeting expectations and outcomes.
Dr Amanda Davies
Senior Researcher in Policing and Security
School Policing Studies
Faculty of Business, Justice and Behavioural Sciences
Can you tell us a little about yourself and your professional background?
I am a Senior Lecturer in Psychology and have a background in sports, industrial-organisational, and social psychology. My career in psychology really started in my Honours year inasmuch as I was able to explore a topic I really cared about in my research. The intellectual freedom I found in doing research was the impetus for my academic career. And the opportunity to ask – and answer – questions as an academic is something I still value above almost anything about this line of work.
What motivated you to become peer reviewer? I wanted to show leadership as an academic in a way that felt meaningful and also horizontal, a leadership opportunity characterised by reciprocity. I knew I would learn new things from doing peer review work that would stretch my own pedagogical knowledge and having been peer reviewed myself as part of the promotion process, it felt like a way of giving back.
Could you share any rewarding experiences you’ve had in your peer reviewing journey? Working with Deborah and the Teaching Academy has been the best part of this process for me. I also enjoyed reviewing the teaching practices of an academic whose disciplinary area is completely different to my own – it was interesting to see how this can influence teaching practice but yet many of the core principles of practice remain the same.
What advice would you give to someone interested in becoming a peer reviewer? Use the support that you have access to via the Teaching Academy. If you haven’t yet applied for promotion but are thinking about doing so, being a peer reviewer will give you insights into the process that will support your own career while also supporting your colleagues and the University more broadly.
Can you share a tip or insight that has been particularly helpful for you in your peer reviewing work? Being a peer reviewer is a great way of testing out your own knowledge and skills – they say you don’t understand things until you have to teach them - having to evaluate teaching practice can really help to deepen your own pedagogical understanding as an academic.
Dr. Rachel Hogg
Senior Lecturer | School of Psychology
Faculty of Business, Justice and Behavioural Sciences
Can you tell us a little about yourself and your professional background? I am an Associate Professor in Immunology, I teach and undertake research in microbiology and immunology. My research is not only lab based (e.g. vaccine development) but also includes education research.
What motivated you to become a mentor or peer reviewer, or both? I wanted to share my experiences as an educator with other academics. I also wanted to be able to inspire other educators as well as exchange ideas and with them helping them see the broader impact of their teaching and mentoring of students.
Could you share any rewarding experiences you’ve had in your mentoring or peer reviewing journey? It was great to share teaching experiences with someone from a different discipline, it made me reflect on my own teaching. I was able to help them see the bigger impact of their contribution to the educational journey of their students.
What advice would you give to someone interested in becoming a mentor or peer reviewer? It is a great opportunity to share your insights as an educator with other academics, get a sense of how their teaching experiences have contributed to their career development.
Thiru Vanniasinkam
Course Director / Associate Professor in Immunology
School of Dentistry and Medical Sciences
Faculty of Science and Health
We are seeking expressions of interest (EOIs) from staff who can contribute as a reviewer (excluding Peer Review of Teaching) and/or mentors:
Please consider this invitation to build capacity in learning and teaching at Charles Sturt and express your interest:
Charles Sturt People and Culture resources on mentoring: