The Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA) Convention will be held in Boston March 7-10 2024.

We are soliciting papers for our roundtable, entitled "Mentoring Scholars of Color." The roundtable was very popular at last year's session, and we want to resume conversations about best practices for mentoring diverse scholars today. The goal is to create a safe space for scholars of color to meet and discuss the challenges and opportunities in the area of mentorship among scholars of color.

In recent years we have seen an increase in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives in higher education, as well as the current dismantling of Affirmative Action. Why now, and how has this influx affected scholars of color? Have any of these initiatives been successful, or are they merely performative – something university administrations can point to as a talking piece or recruitment tool? Has this led to a change in graduate school applications and degree completion? Retention of faculty of color once they enter the academic pipeline? What challenges are our students and faculty of color facing, and how do we respond to and address the microaggressions we experience in our academic lives? How can institutions empower scholars of color who take on the often invisible labor of “diversity work,” many of them while still in graduate school? 

This roundtable seeks to explore these questions and discuss day-to-day things we can do to support scholars of color at all stages of their careers. We want to hear from a diverse range of voices who have direct experience mentoring students and faculty of color, or who want to share the shortcomings they have experienced as mentors or mentees. Through these discussions, we hope to trade resources, ideas, and plans to better support our scholars of color. This is also an opportunity for networking and making connections with other scholars of color for the purposes of mentoring and relationship building.