🌈 Welcome to the LGBTQI+ Mentoring Programme 🌈

Tiphaine Rivière (2016) Notes on a Thesis. London: Jonathan Cape.

We're launching a new LGBTQI+ Mentoring Programme! 

The International Studies Association's (ISA) LGBTQA Caucus Executive Committee is really excited to launch our new mentoring programme for LGBTQI+ identifying scholars in Politics, International Relations and closely related disciplines. 

This mentoring programme pairs together more junior scholars, usually PhD Candidates and Early Career Researchers, with scholars who are further along in their careers. As this is a LGBTQI+ programme, both mentees and mentors will be Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Non-Binary, Gender Diverse, Queer, Questioning or Intersex. We welcome those who are exploring or questioning their sexuality and/or gender identity. 

Mentors and mentees are matched according to shared research interests and workable time difference to allow mentors and mentees to easily arrange mentoring sessions.

This year's mentoring programme will run from October 2020 to September 2021, and mentoring pairs will be introduced via email this week. When the end of the programme draws near, together you can choose whether or not to continue (officially or unofficially) your mentoring partnership into the following year. 

What can I expect from the LGBTQI+ Mentoring Programme?

You can expect to be paired with a LGBTQI+ mentor or mentee in Politics and International Relations (or a closely related discipline) and to meet with your mentor/mentee for approximately an hour once a month for the duration of the academic year. You can decide as a pair whether to meet more or less frequently than this; however, we recommend one hour once a month as a good baseline. Most mentoring pairs will run their sessions via phone call or Zoom, as they will be geographically separate and/or ongoing health concerns regarding COVID-19 will make it unsafe to meet in-person. However, we have much hope that one day you will get to meet your mentor/mentee in person - probably at an ISA conference! 

Mentees and mentors can discuss anything they wish during their mentoring sessions, but topics are likely to include academic and non-academic career paths, the publishing process, conference presentations, research collaborations, the academic job search/ job applications, relocation, going for promotion, supports available to PhD students and ECRs, and, importantly, the experiences of being LGBTQI+ in academia and in Politics/IR. 

Mentoring relationships are not the same as PhD supervision relationships, and you can expect to talk more broadly and with less formality with your mentor/mentee than you might with your PhD supervisor(s)/PhD student(s). 

It is hoped this LGBTQI+ mentoring programme will prompt LGBTQI+ scholars in Politics/IR to reflect on the unique experiences, challenges and opportunities of being LGBTQI+ in our discipline and to discuss these with their mentor or mentee. Being attentive to intersectionality, mentors and mentees will be able to learn from each others' lived experiences and may even develop a greater curiosity about, and understanding of, their own lived experience. 

Meg-John Barker and Julia Scheele (2016) Queer: A Graphic History. London: Icon Books.

Mentee-mentor relationships will also play an important role in strengthening social ties and combatting aloneness and isolation in the LGBTQI+ community for mentees and mentors alike. If you don’t know many (or any) LGBTQI+ scholars in Politics and International Relations, this mentoring programme will help you to meet and get to know your community. 

We are looking forward to having full-programme events/seminars open to all mentees and mentors to attend over the year. These events are designed to further strengthen ties in our LGBTQI+ community and to share experiences and knowledge. These events are optional to attend. 

How do I join as a mentor/mentee? 

This mentoring program is run out of the International Studies Association’s (ISA) LGBTQA Caucus. However, you do not need to be an ISA member to join – you only need to 1) identify/ have lived experienced as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Non-Binary, Gender Diverse, Queer, Questioning or Intersex, and 2) be researching or teaching in Politics and/or IR or a closely related discipline at a tertiary institution.

Are you unsure whether you identify as LGBTQI+? We welcome people who are exploring or questioning their sexual orientation and/or gender identity, so please get involved. 

If you are interested in joining the mentoring programme, send us an email on one of the below addresses. 

If you would like to join as a mentee, contact the ISA LGBTQA Caucus Executive Committee's Member At-Large Alex Edney-Browne at:

alexedneybrowne@gmail.com

If you would like to join as a mentor, contact the ISA LGBTQA Caucus Executive Committee's Chair Jamie Hagen at:

j.hagen@qub.ac.uk 

We are cognisant of and respect safety concerns regarding being involved in an LGBTQI+ initiative. Please let us know when getting in contact with us if would like to keep your participation in the programme private to all except the organisers and your mentoring partner. We will ensure your privacy and safety. 

Keep up-to-date on our website 

Keep clicking back onto our website for regular updates on the mentoring programme and to read blog posts from some of our programme participants. https://isalgbtqamentoring.blogspot.com