Rhetoric Review Symposium Call for Proposals
Intergenerational Graduate Mentorship
The Doctoral Consortium in Rhetoric and Composition has a long history exploring the state of graduate education, including advocating for recognition of Rhetoric and Composition as a distinct field, serving as a resource for information about PhD programs, and supporting graduate students through its research about graduate education conditions and trends in the academic job market. The Consortium also has a long history with Rhetoric Review which it has collaborated with to publish the Survey of Doctoral Programs in Rhetoric and Composition.
At the 2024 Conference on College Composition and Communication Annual Convention, the Consortium continued its work supporting graduate education by focusing on mentoring, a frequent subject in field scholarship and within professional organizations and an important factor in the professionalization of graduate students. The Consortium’s sponsored panel, “Intergenerational Graduate Mentorship,” examined intergenerational mentoring and the forms it has taken both historically and in the context of changing technologies of communication. Presentations explored “Extending Ways of Knowing: Multidirectional Mentoring and Co- Authoring,” “Building A Mentoring Foundation: Beliefs, Practices, and Connections,” and “The (Before and) Afterlives of Grad School Mentoring.”
In order to build on the conversation started at this panel, we invite proposals for a Rhetoric Review Symposium that continues to explore intergenerational graduate mentorship. Mentorship may take a variety of forms, and we encourage essays that think about the beliefs and values that inform mentoring, the practices that facilitate mentoring, and the way mentor- mentee relationships may evolve over time.
Co-authored essays by mentor-mentee pairs may consider questions like the following:
- How do graduate students find a mentor?
- How might graduate students be proactive in seeking mentors who can provide guidance for different elements of professional life?
- How/Why do graduate students and mentors engage in intergenerational collaborations and co-authorship?
- How do graduate students seek out and receive alt-ac mentorship?
- What are the benefits of mentoring relationships for both mentor and mentee?
- How do mentor-mentee pairs negotiate a mentoring relationship in the contexts of personal lives, real world events, or even trauma?
- How do graduate students contribute to the scholarly and professional development of their mentors?
- How does attention to wellness and well-being inform a mentor-mentee relationship?
- What role does identity, research interest, or other affiliations play in the development of mentoring relationships?
Proposals should be 300-500 words. Co-authored essays that are selected should be 4000-4500 words and may take a variety of forms, including a constructed dialogue, blended narratives, or other forms that help to express the mentoring relationship.
Proposals should be sent to Morris Young (msyoung4@wisc.edu) by December 15, 2024. Acceptance notices will be sent out by January 1, 2025. Essay manuscripts will be due April 1, 2025.
Morris Young, Ph.D.
Charles Q. Anderson Professor of English
Director of English 100
Affiliate, Asian American Studies Program
The University of Wisconsin, Madison
600 N. Park Street
Helen C. White Hall
Madison, WI 53706
E-Mail: msyoung4