By Erika Pribanic-Smith
The AEJMC History Division is launching a Mentorship Program, intended to provide practical advice to our members by connecting them with more experienced members of the division.
All division members are eligible to participate, either as a mentor or a mentee. A variety of pairings may come out of this process that could assist scholars at any phase of their careers. For instance, recently-graduated assistant professors or lecturers may be paired with students to assist them with the process of becoming professional academics. Senior scholars may be paired with junior faculty to assist them with their teaching or mentor them through the tenure process. Full professors and professors emerita/emeritus may be paired with associate professors to assist with later-career transitions.
If you are interested in applying to be a mentor or mentee, please fill out the application form at https://tinyurl.com/AEJHistoryMentor by 11:59 p.m. Pacific time on March 29.
Applicants will be paired according to their application responses and will receive further instruction in early April. Pairings made this spring will last one calendar year. Participants in the 2019-2020 mentorship program are welcome to reapply in the future.
In addition to considering career stage, we will look at the mentee applicants’ specific needs and what each mentor applicant is willing to provide, including time commitment.
This program emerged out of a conversation the division’s officers recently had with our graduate student co-liaisons and the membership committee, which includes both tenured and untenured faculty. Suggestions that arose during this conversation included the following:
- Opportunities to get feedback on work
- Community-building/communal get-togethers
- Guidance/advice
- “Non-networky networking”
- Funding
The graduate student co-liaisons, Bailey Dick and Colin Kearney, further assisted with developing the logistics of the mentorship program. Dick said that she, like many graduate students, is interested in advice on getting a job, in particular how to negotiate the job market as an historian.
“Honestly, I have no idea what I’m doing or how this whole thing works,” she said.
In addition to the formal mentorship program, the History Division has reinstituted a Facebook group specifically for graduate students.
“It would provide a way to connect with each other and welcome students who may not be able to get to conferences easily,” Kearney said. He added that it would offer a means of informal peer mentoring.
Students interested in joining the Facebook group can contact us at aejmchistory@gmail.com to be added.
For several years, the division has co-sponsored an off-site social at the annual conference with AEJMC’s Graduate Student Interest Group. That tradition will continue in Toronto this August. The division’s leadership will encourage mentor/mentee pairings attending the conference to meet up at the event, and for students and faculty to mingle more in general.
The social is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 9, immediately following the division’s member business meeting. Details on location to come.
Finally, the division’s officers are looking into ways to provide additional funding to students. The division already provides stipends to students who present at the annual conference. We are discussing how we might also establish a student research travel fund.
If you have suggestions for other ways the division can serve its members, please email us at aejmchistory@gmail.com