Celebrating our colleagues: Joshua Curtis

Josh Curtis, Lecturer, Adelaide Law School  

What are you most excited about this year? 

We've just had the September round of graduations and, regardless of getting sore hands from over two hours of clapping, I do enjoy the formality and celebration of intellectual achievement, and try to get to the graduations of my students at every given opportunity.  

When I was going through secondary school, going to university was strongly encouraged by my parents, particularly because it would mean that I would become the first person in my family to get a degree. So when I actually got to the point of graduating it was a big event for the family, and I cherish a lot of positive memories of my graduation in Bonython Hall in 1998.  

Now, it’s very nice being on the podium and participating in the students’ achievement from the opposite side of the equation. I always remember exactly where I was sitting in the Hall during my graduation and where my family was and the photos taken on the lawn outside… and there was this sense of valuing what the University was about, the knowledge that it gave people, and the centrality and importance of a university to society.  

I’m also really looking forward to teaching Indigenous Perspectives and Legal Theory to first year students in Foundations of Law. Particularly at this point in time, with the referendum coming up on the Voice to Parliament, it’s going to be a really interesting time to teach this topic. Indigenous knowledge is becoming better embedded in our curriculum and I think it is something that affects students strongly in their first year, and is something that they can carry throughout their studies and their career.  

Students who are learning about the law need to understand that it can be a double-edged sword: it can be a strong liberating factor, and it can equally be used for unjust ends.

What did you do after graduating? 

I’ve had a very strong social justice bent from an early age, perhaps from a combination of being brought up in a Christian family and the influence of seeing UNICEF, Save the Children and OXFAM ads that were always on the tele when I was growing up. Those ads really highlighted the huge discrepancies in opportunity for people in other parts of the world. And so even as a kid I was aware that I had quite a few privileges, particularly compared to people in other parts of the world. That disparity made a huge impression on me.  

After graduating I wasn’t really sure of what I wanted to do and how I wanted to best fit in with the world ... but what I did know was that I wanted to travel and experience other cultures. I’d had an experience of visiting Italy for three weeks when I was 15 and it blew my mind … but by my early twenties, what had been added was a desire to understand why there was this huge disparity between what was experienced here and what was experienced elsewhere.  

So I did a fair bit of travel and voluntary work around south-east Asia, particularly in Nepal and India, and eventually ended up in Europe where I’ve spent much of my time over the last 20 years, initially continuing to do voluntary work, teaching English and… just wandering, I guess.  

My direction took a turn when I was in my early thirties, living in Ireland. At the time, I was volunteering for Amnesty International and had been hearing a lot about a coup in Nepal, during which the King had taken over and imprisoned a lot of the parliamentarians and this was a big issue in my perspective, but it was nowhere on the media agenda generally, let alone in Ireland! So we wanted to put on an event in Galway to raise awareness of it.  

A colleague recommended that I contact the Irish Centre for Human Rights, which was part of the law school at the National University of Ireland, Galway, just down the road. I ended up talking to the Deputy Director and invited him to come along to give an address, which he did. In hearing from him speak on human rights during that event and talking to him afterwards, I became increasingly intrigued and he ended up persuading me into doing a Masters and that was where I got the direction for the rest of my life – I wanted to get back into the law, focussing on human rights and seeing how it connects with justice.  

I ended up doing my PhD in Ireland, then working in law schools in Berlin, London and Liverpool. Around the time of the pandemic some family circumstances brought me back to Australia and I was lucky enough to get a job in the University of Adelaide’s Law School… back where it all began!  

It’s been a process of silver linings, fortune and faith that in doing the right thing, things will work out. Or maybe it’s just luck.  

Do you have a favourite place on campus? 

I’ve got two favourite places and they both lead back to my undergraduate days at the University. 

Before my interview for this job, I walked around the campus for a while, taking the time to really soak it up. I went to the Barr Smith Reading Room where I’d spent so much time as a student, particularly when I was studying philosophy, just to soak up the atmosphere there and feel the tradition and the substance of what goes on in a university and its value to society as a place of knowledge and a deep understanding of things from many different perspectives. 

There’s almost a socio-spiritual side to a university that I think is crucial to society in general, and I hope we hold on to that.

There’s also a majestic Ghost Gum out the front of the Ligertwood building on North Terrace that I can remember being there from my undergraduate days – in fact there used to be two but one must have passed on – and I like going out there and just looking up through the branches and also hearing the birds.  

As a city, Adelaide changed a lot in the 20 years that I was away, but the campus still feels really familiar and gives me a very strong feeling of homecoming.

Which of the University Values and Behaviours are most important to you (integrity, respect, collegiality, excellence, discovery)? 

Collegiality could perhaps encompass all of the others. I’m quite personable and the Adelaide Law School values collegiality very highly.  We have an amazing bunch of colleagues and students who are intellectually and practically supportive of each other. The Law School’s culture of collegiality, togetherness and belonging is particularly strong and I try as much as possible to contribute to it myself.  

I fundamentally feel that, as a person who is first in family to have a degree, to end up here, doing what I love, is a real blessing. There’s a lot of good that goes on in universities, particularly here, and I’m lucky enough to be a part of it. Hopefully I can give back as much as possible so that others can have their own incredible experiences.  

Story by Dr Simon Behenna, Internal Communications Coordinator

Photography by Isaac Freeman, Communications Assistant