Ten Simple Rules for Mentoring Historically Excluded Students

Abstract

At the height of the pandemic, a group of diverse anthropology graduate students, alumni, and affiliated faculty met weekly via Zoom to reflect on the pandemic and the support they were providing each other. All the individuals were members of what they affectionately called “The Lab,” a West Coast medical anthropology lab managed by a Latino professor at a predominantly white institution. For all in attendance, The Lab was their home, even during the pandemic, and the participants believed that how they mentored each other as diverse, disabled, and queer researchers should be shared broadly. This Ten Simple Rules article provides suggestions for mentoring historically excluded students. The authors hope these rules will support educators and mentors who serve or wish for a diverse student body

Keywords:

• Disability
• diversity
• mentoring

Acknowledgments

Sean would like to thank the students, alums, and affiliate faculty who proposed and voted to continue meeting online during Sean’s sabbatical and the COVID-19 pandemic to have moments of laughter and support.

Authors’ contributions

Rhiannon Joker: writing and editing of the manuscript. L.C Osadchuk: writing and editing of the manuscript. Tori Bianchi: Suggested the Top Ten format and theorized, wrote, and edited the manuscript. Griffin Quinn: writing and editing of the manuscript. Corinne “Cori” Knight: writing and editing of the manuscript. Sean Bruna: writing and editing of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Notes

1 Voltron is an animated television series franchise from the early 1980s that features a team of outcast space explorers who individually pilot spaceships that come together to form a giant super robot known as “Voltron.” A discussion and critique of Voltron, is available in “Dis/ability in Media, Law and History: Intersectional, Embodied AND Socially Constructed?” United Kingdom, Taylor & Francis, 2022.