Mentoring Myth #1: Mentors must be R1 faculty

Perhaps the most surprising reaction I have had from colleagues when I try to encourage them to mentor junior theorists has come from faculty at liberal arts colleges.  What I have heard (and I may be getting this wrong, so feel free to correct me - you know who you are!) is something to the effect of, "I can't be an effective mentor to a theorist at a different institution because I don't advise graduate students."

As someone who went to a liberal arts college myself (Bryn Mawr), and who - to be totally honest - wanted to get a job at that kind of an institution, but only got a job offer from an R1, I find this very sad.

In political theory, we are fortunate to have many amazing mentors who have taught at small liberal arts colleges, faculty who have mentored undergraduates who have gone on to become political theorists.

Being a good mentor has nothing to do with your home institution.  It has everything to do with your willingness to listen to your mentee, and help her identify people and resources that will support her career goals. 

If you are a good advisor to your own students, you will be a good mentor to any mentee you take on.

I am guessing that the concern raised by my liberal arts college peers comes from a misconception about mentoring (and please - send me feedback if I am missing something important here, or if I have not captured the nature of the concern).  The misconception goes something like this:  "I need to have experience advising current Ph.D. students in order to be an effective mentor to graduate students and junior faculty outside my institution."

You have all the experience you need to be a mentor.  Being a good mentor is not about knowing all the answers.  In some cases, you may have relevant suggestions for your mentee.  In other cases, you won't.  This will happen to everyone who mentors, regardless of whether they have graduate students or not.

So what is the experience I'm telling you that you already have?

• you have experienced what it is like to be a graduate student (good and bad)
• you have experienced what it is like to get a job, to move to a new institution, to transition to living in a new place
• you have experienced what it is like to worry about tenure, and (even better!) to get tenure
• you have experienced what it is like to get published, what it is like to have an article rejected, what it is like to deal with terrible reviews and terrible reviewers
• you have experienced what it is like to write, to revise, to toss out ideas you once loved
• you have experienced what it is like to teach, to have great days in the classroom, and absolutely abysmal days, too

I don't think I am stretching too far here by imagining that you have experienced these things.  This is a huge amount of experience that you can draw on.  Not to mention that you also have the experience of everyone you know (at your institution, in the field, outside of academia) that you can draw on at any time.  You have your own network!

If your mentee asks a question about the current job market, and you don't feel like you know the answer, that doesn't make you a bad mentor.  Rather it is good news:  this is a question you can farm out to someone else.  Help your mentee build her network by introducing her to people you know who have been on the market recently, or who have hired recently.


And, if you don't find any of this persuasive yet, try this:  when you fill out the form to be a mentor through APSA, request a junior faculty mentee who is at a liberal arts college.  Or request a graduate student or recent Ph.D. who wants to get a job at a liberal arts college.  You never know who is going to be looking for exactly what you have to offer!