The Mentoring Project For Pre-tenure Women Faculty in Philosophy

3rd Biennial Workshop
February 1, 2015
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Co-Directors: Louise Antony (UMass) and Ann Cudd (Kansas)

There is mounting evidence that mentoring is important for success in academia. The Mentoring Project aims to build long-term mentoring relationships between eminent senior women and junior women in the field of philosophy.

The Mentoring Project conducted its inaugural workshop in 2011 following a model designed by women in the American Economics Association, which has proven remarkably successful. The second biannual philosophers Mentoring Project will again involve a three-day workshop involving small-group intensive working sessions interspersed with plenary panel discussions on professional development and work/life issues.

Mentees will be assigned a networking group consisting of a mentor and four fellow mentees working in similar fields. Each mentor will be responsible for providing written feedback on the workshop papers of each of her mentees, and for participating in discussion at the workshop. Mentees will take responsibility for providing written feedback on the papers of their group members, and will serve as discussion leader and first reader for one paper and second reader for another. In the long term, group members will actively monitor the progress of each others' careers, offering philosophical feedback and, in the case of the mentors, advice about professional development along the way.

Why Attend?

Women are underrepresented in the profession of Philosophy, and many explanations have been offered for this fact. Two recent special issues of journals that address this issue include a virtual issue of Hypatia and a special issue of the Journal of Social Philosophy. Though there are several causes of this imbalance, good mentoring has been found to be important for success in academia, and women do not receive as much of it as men do. The Mentoring Project aims to build long-term mentoring relationships between eminent senior women and junior women in the field of philosophy.

To Apply

To apply for the workshop, send your CV and an abstract of the paper you will discuss with your networking group by email to lantony@philos.umass.edu and acudd@ku.edu with subject line: Mentoring 2015 application by Feb. 1, 2015.

In addition, we would appreciate an email from you indicating in the subject line your AOS (you may list two fields in preference order). We need this information in order to invite mentors as soon as possible. You need not say anthing in the text; we just need a subject line that reads: "AOS xxx and yyy" where xxx is your first area of expertise, and yyy is your second.

In choosing a paper to discuss, you should take care to choose a paper that is squarely in the area of philosophy that you work in. We will place you in a mentoring group according to the topic of your paper, and that means that the papers you will read and comment on will also be in that area of philosophy. We will do our best to match members of the cohorts and their mentors, subject to availability and space in the workshop.

• Eligibility:  Any woman entering or holding a faculty position in Philosophy at a college or university.  We would especially like to encourage applications from members of groups underrepresented in Philosophy.  
• Cost: There is no charge for participation in the workshop, but we expect mentees' home institutions to cover the cost of their transportation, and room and board (est. $325).
• Accessibility: The Mentoring Project is committed to making the Workshop completely accessible to disabled philosophers.  All meeting, dining, and guest rooms are wheelchair accessible.  Philosophers needing ASL interpreters or assistive technology are asked to communicate such needs as soon as possible to Louise Antony (lantony@philos.umass.edu) who is handling local arrangements.

Louise Antony – lantony@philos.umass.edu
Ann Cudd – acudd@ku.edu

The Mentoring Project Workshop is a project of the Women in Philosophy Task Force. It is funded by grants from the American Philosophical Association and the Marc Sanders Foundation, and by the Department of Philosophy at U Mass Amherst, and the University of Kansas.