Mentorship Mosaic Program
The Rutgers-ISGRJ Mentorship Mosaic Program is an essential feature of the institute’s mission to advance research in global racial justice and to contribute actively to the diversification of the academy. The program is conceived as linking scholarship with mentorship and the building of communities of care. It is designed with the goal of nurturing scholars who are humanistically inclined, and who have chosen to work on topics dealing with race, racism and inequality in their respective fields. Connecting them to a mosaic of resources, people, programs, and scholarly approaches, our goal is to create a pipeline of support at multiple stages of their careers. We also hope to contribute to a broader, more cohesive culture of mentoring throughout the Rutgers community.
Writing Retreats
Easton’s Nook is a warm, comfortable, beautiful space where scholars, artists, and activists can meet, and can pursue their work individually or as a part of small, supportive, collaborative groups. For those who are interested in professional development supports, in the Spring and Summer Easton’s Nook hosts workshops on preparing for the academic job market, writing, publishing, and planning for tenure. All of these workshops are available to post-docs and tenure-track and non-tenure track faculty.
Pictured: ISGRJ Post Doctoral Fellows Hugo Bujon, Ezgi Cakmak, Jaime Coan, Keish Kim, Amelia Herbert and ISGRJ Early Career Faculty Fellow Diane Wong during a writing retreat at Easton's Nook from May 25-27, 2023.
Other Writing Development Opportunities:
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Cave Canem (Greensburg, PA): Open to Black poets of African descent ages 21 and over. Free, by application only. Click here for more.
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InkWell (online): Open to all academic writers, Click here for more.
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Northwestern Book Manuscript Workshop (online): Open to scholars of race and ethnic studies. Free, by application only. Click here for more.
The partnership between the Faculty Diversity Collaborative (FDC) and the Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice is focused on providing direct support to the fellows through the Mentorship Mosaic Program. We have identified and committed resources for supporting the fellows across multiple stages of their career. The FDC aims to integrate diversity and inclusion into the institutional pursuit of academic excellence, guiding institutional investment in the retention and success of a diverse faculty. Our approach focuses on building a community of practice with individualized and targeted supports along the faculty life cycle to increase diverse faculty/future faculty engagement, ensure effective mentoring, expand networking opportunities and develop leadership skills.
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The Mentorship Mosaic Program, a partnership between the Faculty Diversity Collaborative (FDC) and the Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice, involves a programmatic approach that utilizes the Advance, Engage, and Mentor (AEM) framework to provide faculty support.
- Advance refers to building knowledge and skills through core workshops and venues for professional development that lead to career advancement and gratification. The FDC Advance components and professional development workshops that are available to ISGRJ Fellows include a free membership to NCFDD and the host of educational and professional development workshops they offer as well as the Program for Early Career Excellence (PECE) Workshop Series for junior faculty. Click here to access the workshop series page.
- Engage focuses on cultivating an inclusive community that celebrates and nurtures scholars intellectually and professionally and socially, as well as connecting individuals to a robust peer network that is institutionally sustained. All ISGRJ Fellows are invited to attend a humanities seminar on Race, In Theory, with monthly visits from Rutgers faculty in related fields to the Understanding Race series; and regular peer group get-togethers with ISGRJ’s Founding and Executive Director to discuss professional and scholarly issues.
- Mentor refers to building a culture of mentoring and inclusion that recognizes a mosaic of resources and individuals are necessary to help current and future faculty achieve their professional, academic, and/or personal development goals. All fellows are eligible to be nominated for the Rutgers Connections Network program, which offers access to a suite of options for targeted mentorship support as needed including: pairings with peer or senior scholars for 10 months in monthly 2 hour meetings; enrollment in the Early Career and Racial Equity (E-CARE) Program, a 2 year cohort program that offers workshops; career development planning; writing retreats; milestone assignments; peer to peer mentoring and accountability groups; 1:1 coaching support; and a senior faculty mentor who will serve as a Faculty Success Partner engaged in 1:1 mentoring and facilitating connections to other faculty sponsors.
- Other mentorship options include: office hours with Institute Directors; discipline-specific mentoring; mutual mentoring grants; assigned department mentors; and ISGRJ funded support for external disciplinary mentors to aid with professional development and research writing. ISGRJ Postdoctoral Fellows also attend The Writing Worktable, a workshop on scholarly writing modeled on antiracist pedagogy that includes 1:1 work with a faculty peer writing consultant. Postdoctoral Fellows are also assigned an Institute Director-mentor who provides a point of contact for their work.
Access the Mutual Mentoring Grant Program here.
Beyond the ISGRJ fellowship period, the FDC is committed to faculty success and belonging in the long term, with a menu of FDC programs, initiatives, and grant opportunities available to serve Rutgers faculty throughout their career life cycle. Together, the ISGRJ and the FDC are committed to working with faculty and fellows to help support their academic journey at Rutgers.