We are pleased to announce a new initiative by the LSA Committee on the Status of Women in Linguistics (COSWL): “pop-up mentoring” events, to take place at several conferences in Spring 2018. In brief, these will be 2-hour events in which anyone who wants mentoring on a variety of topics can connect with established people in the field for help.

This pilot program is based on a successful “speed mentoring” program that has been run for many years by the American Psychosomatic Society, and is modeled after similar events organized by Women in Cognitive Science (WiCS). There are several ground rules for this program:

1. This is a one-time session (i.e., the mentor is not signing on for a longer-term mentoring relationship);
2. The mentee should come with a specific question or two to guide the session and make the most of it;
3. The mentee should send the mentor some information about themselves and their question(s) ahead of time, but not expect that the mentor will have read this information prior to the meeting.

If you are interested in being a mentor, please complete the Mentor signup form

If you are interested in being mentored, please complete the Mentee signup form

Once mentors are secured, mentors and mentees will be matched based on general interest area. Everyone is welcome to participate! 

Here is a list of upcoming conferences that are hosting pop-up mentoring events:

• WSS9 (Queens College, April 4-7, 2018)
• SAIL/WSCLA (University of Ottawa, April 13-15, 2018)
• WCCFL (UCLA, April 20-22, 2018)
• SALT (MIT, May 18-20, 2018)

Please contact COSWL member Jessica Rett if you’re interested in hosting a pop-up mentoring event at your next conference!

If you’re curious about other aspects of academic mentoring — how to do it, why to do it, etc — COSWL recommends these brochures from Rutgers Women in Science, Engineering and Mathematics.