Research Mentoring: A Workshop for Faculty Mentors of PhDs

Sponsored by ASTR
16-17 November 2011, Fairmont Hotel, Montreal
 

We can structure innovative graduate programs, offer terrific courses, and recruit superior students, but if mentorship is not optimal, the whole enterprise will flounder. This workshop (commencing 2:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. Wednesday 16 November and continuing 9:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. Thursday 17 November – immediately 

prior to the start of ASTR’s conference) is designed to address key concerns and challenges encountered by research mentors. Be sure to plan an early arrival for this innovative workshop. 

Using an open-discussion format and breakout groups, participants will confer on case studies that explore approaches to:

• Maintaining Effective Communication

• Establishing Expectations

• Assessing Understanding

• Addressing Diversity

• Fostering Independence

• Promoting Professional Development

The workshop is suitable for mentors with any level of experience. Participants will reflect upon and expand competencies in providing constructive feedback, communicating across diverse backgrounds, disciplines, and ethnicities, and improving communication in multiple circumstances. Optimization of the mentoring relationship will be addressed with tools that help both mentors and mentees to express and align expectations across disciplinary and cultural differences, to recognize the existence of assumptions and biases that can impede progress, and to implement concrete strategies for addressing issues as they arise. Graduated independence is often the goal of the mentor-mentee relationship; by identifying a personal mentoring style participants will learn to recognize their assumptions about mentoring relationships and to constructively foster mentees’ autonomy in concert with growing skills and confidence.

This workshop is the first of its kind offered by ASTR. As a professional development opportunity, the workshop will enable faculty to recognize the role of mentorship in their own careers as well as impact on the career development of mentees. Best practices for guiding the professional development of others in a balanced manner will be stressed, recognizing the competing demands, needs, and interests of mentors and mentees (for example, research productivity, grant writing, career  preferences, and work-life balance).

A nominal fee of $100 will cover costs of materials, room rental and refreshments. Registration is available now through the conference registration process.

For more information and to express your interest, please contact the workshop leader, Tracy C. Davis. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Workshop Leader:

Tracy C. Davis is Barber Professor of Performing Arts at Northwestern University. A mentor to dozens of PhD students across several fields, she is now leading an initiative to enhance the mentoring of doctoral students and post-doctoral fellows within The Graduate School at Northwestern.