2026 Call for nominations for the GSA Mentoring Award
We have all benefitted from mentoring during our undergraduate and graduate studies and throughout our careers. In order to recognize the often overlooked time and energy spent guiding undergraduate students, graduate students, and colleagues as they progress through their studies or in their careers, the GSA is initiating an annual Mentoring Award. Mentoring often happens without formal institutional recognition. We would like to acknowledge publicly this vital and influential work.
Please consider nominating a mentor, colleague, or yourself for the inaugural Mentoring Award, which carries an award of $500 and will be presented at the 2026 GSA Conference Banquet.
Please submit a nomination letter of no more than 1000 words here by August 20, 2026. The nomination letter should state your relationship to the nominee (self-nominations are accepted) and outline the nominee’s mentoring activities. Award criteria are listed below. It is understood that mentoring may take different shapes in different disciplines and institutional settings. Therefore it is not expected that nominees will fulfill all criteria. Submissions will be judged by the Mentoring Taskforce/Committee.
MENTORING AWARD CRITERIA
- Promoting intellectual growth through programming, innovation, teaching, and transparency.
- Fostering the development of undergraduate and/or graduate students’ skills.
- Effective direction of dissertations, including timely evaluation, guidance, and feedback.
- Being accessible to students and/or colleagues for discussion of intellectual or professional questions and concerns, communicating with them effectively and respectfully, and encouraging such interactions.
- Educating students in the culture of the discipline and helping them to network with other professionals.
- Providing career counseling and placement assistance, including possibilities outside the academy.
- Promoting a climate of respect and collegiality that enhances the graduate experience or work environment and increases chances of success.
- Providing guidance to colleagues or peers, also in related fields, about research, service, and/or teaching.
- Participating in service activities (such as the peer review of article or book manuscripts, peer reviews of teaching, or external reviews of tenure and promotion cases) that promote the career advancement of graduate students and faculty.
Submit nominations here: https://forms.gle/w42tvbgkmnowk2Xv6
Contact: Elizabeth Loentz, GSA Mentoring Taskforce, Chair
The GSA Mentoring Prize grew out of Professor Ela Gezen’s contributions to the inaugural GSA Forum for Diversity, Equity and Social Justice in 2020 and as a member of the GSA Board. The formal proposal for the prize and 1:1 mentoring sessions during the annual conference was approved by membership vote in 2023, soon followed by the formation of a mentoring task force in early 2024 with Dr. Gezen as the inaugural chair. Under the leadership of the current task force chaired by Professor Elizabeth Loentz, this prize represents a core element of our collective vision for an expanding organizational mentoring program that benefits from all levels of the membership generously sharing their time and expertise.