2014-2015 Call for Participation

Our field boasts a wide range of area studies and disciplinary knowledge, but how one makes one’s way through dissertation rites, funding circles, postdocs, job markets, and non-academic career trajectories is often left as much to creative invention as it is to shared advice. Early-career scholars rightly lean on their advisors, their universities, and their peer networks with these issues, but the advantage of an association like ASEEES is that we can offer a good deal more.

In a pilot project, ASEEES is sponsoring a new network to match volunteer mentors and mentees who are interested in conversation on these and other topics over the course of a single academic year.

Mentors

may come from mid-career or senior scholars, as well as professionals from outside the academy, to be matched with 

Mentees

who are graduate students at any stage of their careers or post-graduates within five years of receipt of the Ph.D. 

How it Works

• Mentors and mentees are matched by a five-person ASEEES committee;
• This one-year mentoring relationship is intended for September 2014 through August of 2015;
• Communications may take place as often as once a month, either electronically or where possible, in-person, but are intended more commonly as two to three conversations over the course of a year about the state of a given field; an exchange of experiences on entering these fields; and how a mentor can offer a fresh perspective on a junior colleague’s plans.
• Participants are encouraged, but not required, to meet once in person at the annual convention of ASEEES;
• Mentoring conversations are intended to be reciprocal, in the sense that junior and senior colleagues are interested in sharing ideas and experiences at different locations on a career spectrum;
• While reading of dissertation chapters or grant proposals aids every young scholar, this program defers that labor to the participants’ local networks. No commitment to reading is required of participants in this program.

Please also see our: Mentoring Resources

How to Participate

To take part in these conversations, please register online by: Friday, May 2^nd

using one of the two forms below:

Become a Mentor      Find a Mentor

Timeline

May 2 – Register to serve as 

Mid-Aug – Participants will be notified in mid-August.

Sept 1 – Program starts September 2014.

Nov. 20-23 – If possible schedule a meeting at the ASEEES annual Convention.

Aug. 31, 2015 – Program ends