Vol. 40, No. 1, January 2011
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Photo by caribb (Doug), Flickr
HSS Mentorship: Extra-Mural Connections in Montréal
by Cera Lawrence, Graduate Student, Arizona State University
I feel fortunate to have been involved in organizing the Graduate and Early Career Caucus (GECC) Mentorship Program at the Montréal. Quite often in the process, things seemed to simply fall into place—little serendipitous events allowed good things to happen. I believe that apparent magic of this kind is almost always due to the combined efforts of multiple people. Because of those efforts, and the sustained hard work of my co-chair Rachel Mason Dentinger, the Mentorship Program really took off this year. Over 40 people participated in some regard, either in the one-on-one mentorship pairs or in the women scholars’ mentorship tea.
Quick Links....
A Personal Reflection on Elder Care and Life/Work Issues
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Notes from the Inside
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News
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Member News
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HSS 2011 Annual Meeting: Call for Papers
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Au Revoir Montréal: A Post-Meeting Report
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Why I Go To AAAS
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Situating the "Situating Science Cluster"
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HSS Mentorship
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2009-10 Employment Survey
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Job Opportunities
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Jobs, Conferences, Grants
We arranged seventeen pairs of on-site mentor/mentees, matched by research interest as closely as possible, but also by the needs and experience of the mentees. Quite fortunately, we had many potential mentors step up to help—in fact, we ended up with a few more willing to mentor than mentees! Fortunately, the surplus of mentors let us tackle some inevitable last-minute requests and cancellations. I am very grateful both to those who did volunteer, and to those who could not, but recommended other scholars. The enthusiasm that the experienced members of the HSS had for this project was instrumental in its success.
In partnership with the Women’s Caucus, the GECC hosted a mentorship gathering for women scholars, the first time for such an event. The idea for the Women Scholars’ Mentorship Tea came from established female scholars, who asked us to find a way for them to meet casually with young women. We are grateful to Sally Gregory Kohlstedt, Rima Apple, Marsha Richmond, and Janet Browne for their wonderful mentorship; to Jay Malone and Greg Macklem for setting up our meeting room with such alacrity, but most especially to the unnamed donor who made the event possible. The Women Scholars’ Tea and Mentorship gathering was an extraordinary experience for the ten mentees who attended.
Rachel and I had such a great experience this year that we are not relinquishing the mentorship program to someone else for next time! Even with this year’s advances, there are improvements to be made. Some on-site pairs were unable to meet in person, due to various conflicts and missed connections, and despite our outreach efforts, some graduate-student members told us that they did not know about the program. But in all, the Mentorship Program thrived at this year’s meeting, and the clear support that the HSS membership has for this project has inspired us to sustain our efforts for the coming year.
Aside from the on-site mentorship, we are also organizing mentorships by email. We currently have eight graduate student mentees who are in need of an extra-mural mentor to advise them in various aspects of career planning and professionalization. Please email us at hssmentorship@gmail.com to get involved.