Modeling Feminist Mentoring: Introduction

The National Women's Studies Association (NWSA) and NWSA Journal remain committed to feminist activism and mentoring. One way we facilitate this at the Journal is to welcome submissions of graduate student work. It was in such a spirit that the NWSA Journal agreed to be part of a class assignment and publish the graduate student-authored book reviews following this introduction.

Patricia Miller, from the University of Georgia, approached the Journal about providing her graduate women's studies course with a real-world exercise, writing a review for possible publication. Looking for a variety of topics, we gathered books ready for review and sent them to Dr. Miller's class. The students chose a book within their field for a one-title review and were given our standard guidelines and policy procedures along with a deadline of two months. Upon completion of the assignment, each student returned a three-page review to us, as well as a "Consent to Publish" form, and an auto-biographical statement. Although all of the eleven pieces were well done, a decision was made to publish four of the reviews based on the level of critique and writing quality.

As university budgets tighten in the current economic climate, it becomes even more important that we support and nurture future feminist activists and scholars. This class project serves as one example of modeling feminist mentoring.