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Abstract
Higher education and organizations within academic disciplines are important spaces for mentoring and other forms of networking. These spaces, however, are often situated in environments that limit equitable and inclusive opportunities for early career and underrepresented scholars to effectively engage in mentoring. This paper contributes to critical feminist scholarship that examines how organizations in higher education can offer supportive mentoring spaces for women, early career faculty, and scholars from diverse backgrounds. The analysis focuses on the Geographic Perspectives on Women (GPOW) Specialty Group of the American Association of Geographers (AAG) as a space for faculty, students and other geographers to enhance their professional and personal success. Our analysis draws from the results of an international survey, a focus group discussion, and reflexive participation of feminist geographers aligned with this specialty group. We examine the ways in which this academic organization, and the informal and formal networks it cultivates, attempts to foster an anti-oppressive mentoring community of feminist geographers. We also analyze how these networks are shaped by and embedded in neoliberal institutions in the discipline of geography and higher education as a whole. This discussion offers important insights to growing research and initiatives that support mentoring for women, feminists, and others concerned with building more inclusive and socially just spaces in academia.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Karen Falconer Al-Hindi for her vision and encouragement in making this themed issue on mentoring, difference, and place possible. We also benefitted from insightful feedback from two anonymous reviewers on earlier versions of the paper. The study on which this article is based builds on the innovative approaches and important mentoring that takes place in the Geographic Perspectives on Women (GPOW), now Feminist Geographies, Specialty Group of the American Association of Geographers. Finally, we are indebted to Kelsey Hanrahan for her leadership and Darcy Besch for her thoughtful analysis of the GPOW survey data.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Ann M. Oberhauser
Ann M. Oberhauser is a Professor of Sociology and Director of Women’s and Gender Studies at Iowa State University. Oberhauser earned her PhD from the Graduate School of Geography at Clark University. She is a member of the Steering Committee of the Gender and Geography Commission of the International Geographical Union. Her research and teaching interests focus on critical development studies, feminist economic geography, and feminist pedagogy. Some of this work has been published in the co-authored book Feminist Spaces: Gender and Geography in a Global Context and in journals such as Geografiska Annaler, GeoJournal, The Sociological Quarterly, and Gender, Place, and Culture.
Martina Angela Caretta
Martina Angela Caretta is an Assistant Professor of Geography in the Department of Geology and Geography at West Virginia University. She holds a PhD in Geography from Stockholm University, Sweden. Martina conducts research on human-environment interactions with an emphasis on human dimensions of water. She is a Coordinating Lead Author of the forthcoming 6th UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Assessment Report. Some of her recent works examine the neoliberal turn of academia and consequences for early-career female faculty. She has published extensively in leading geography journals such as Annals of the American Association of Geographers, The Professional Geographer, ACME, Geographical Review, and Journal of Geography in Higher Education.