About the Mentoring Program
The American Academy of Religion runs a year-long program to assist in mentoring scholars who are members of underrepresented groups. The program is an initiative of the status committees of the AAR:
Status of LGBTIQ Persons in the Profession Committee
Status of People with Disabilities in the Profession Committee
Status of Racial and Ethnic Minorities in the Profession Committee
Status of Women in the Profession Committee
How It Works
Participants in the program must have current AAR membership. Graduate students, faculty of any rank or position, and scholars working outside the academy are all eligible to be mentees. Each status committee nominates and approves mentors. The mentoring subcommittee will attempt to match mentee applicants with mentors as best as possible according to application data. The committee cannot guarantee that a mentor will meet all criteria requested, and it is possible that some mentee applicants may not be matched with a mentor if the number of mentors does not allow.
Expectations
The mentor-mentee relationship is for one year, from August 2022 through July 2023.
A typical mentor-mentee relationship might include:
- Two calls or video-conferencing meetings per semester
- An in-person meeting at the AAR Annual Meeting in November
- Completion of feedback survey at the end of July 2023
Typical areas of mentorship include (but are not limited to):
- Work/Life Balance
- Navigating Job Searches and Hiring Negotiations
- Working with a Dissertation Committee
- Publishing
- Tenure and Promotion
- Disclosure of Various Aspects of Identity
- Developing as a Teacher