Sociologists for Women in Society

Mentoring Program

Mentoring Programs

Mentoring is part of the foundation of SWS. Many of us have friends, faculty members, and colleagues who fulfill these roles. Sometimes, however, it is helpful to have someone outside of your institution who can offer guidance and counsel.

To that end SWS hosts several different kinds of mentoring programs. The “Critique me” program to help members prepare for the academic job market, one-on-one mentor matches to help match members with mentors for support around narrowly defined, limited duration duration challenges, and peer-mentoring groups to provide longer term support to members navigating professional careers at similar stages. 

We invite all members to sign up to participate in any or all of these mentoring programs. We invite members to sign up for Peer or one-on-one mentoring at this time. Please see further program specific details below.

Peer Mentoring Groups

Peer mentoring groups are intended to provide regular and long-term support and diverse perspectives. Mentoring Teams may be composed of peers or a mix of experienced and less experienced members, but are organized around topics of shared interest for the group. 

Groups will designate a leader who will send out meeting invites, and plan to meet at least once a month for six months. At the end of the program period, members will be able to opt in to continue with the same group.

Sign-ups will be available in the spring for the summer/fall program and in the fall for the winter/spring program.

Click here to sign up

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One-on-One mentoring

One-on-one mentoring is well-suited for concerns that are time-limited, especially individual (e.g. substantive feedback on a paper), or are quite personal/require significant confidentiality. Examples of needs appropriate for paired mentoring may include substantive feedback on scholarly work, promotion and tenure materials, job market materials, or creating a resume from a CV. They may also include specific needs related to navigating graduate school or tenure and promotion (including to full professor), specific advice on choosing service commitments, individualized help with time management and prioritizing, specific concerns related to navigating toxic departments, committees, colleagues, etc. 

Sign-ups are available any time on an as–needed basis.

Click here to volunteer as a mentor

Click here to request a mentor

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Critique Me

Critique me pairs members with an individual mentor who can offer advice on CV/job market materials and help with general job search related questions. This is a limited commitment on the part of Critique Me mentors. The goal is for mentors to provide feedback between August and October based on the needs and agreement of those matched. After October, these requests should be made through our usual mentoring request system.

Sign-ups are available in summer and matches made in advance of the summer meeting.

Mentoring Resources

Inside Higher Ed Resources