The first ever virtual annual meeting of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies is a wrap! Many of us are worn out and zoomed out but also, I think, excited and energized by hearing about the research going on in our field. This meeting was the largest of the last few decades, with 950 scholars registered. That's amazing! The conference has always been a boon to my research and development as a teacher-scholar, and I want to take a moment to reflect on why that is and one person in particular.
This year, the winner of the ASECS graduate student caucus Excellent in Mentorship Award was Dr. Kristina Straub of Carnegie Mellon University. I nominated Kristina, wrote a letter to the committee, and solicited other former and current graduate students of hers to submit letters as well. I was over the moon when I learned that she had been awarded this distinguished honor. I don't think it's an overstatement to say that if it weren't for Kristina, I probably wouldn't be where I am today--and certainly, Sapphic Crossings owes much to her mentorship. I met Kristina for the first time at my first ever ASECS in Vancouver in 2011. I was a graduate student just starting my dissertation, and I was on a roundtable co-chaired by herself and George Haggerty. I was thrilled to be in the room with so many people whose names were on the books and articles I'd been reading. It was with trepidation that I asked her to be the outside reader on my dissertation--even though there was absolutely no reason to be nervous! Kristina was and is one of the most generous and kindest people in our profession that I have ever known. Kristina was one of the first people to validate my research interests and work; she was generous with feedback and support, and she always made me feel like I had something to contribute. This was especially important for me given that my home institution was not strong in eighteenth-century literary studies (an understatement!). Beyond that, I never felt like she treated me "like a graduate student." Kristina helped me feel like I had something to contribute to this field and that it was important. I'll never forget the effect that her faith in me had on my confidence in my abilities. In addition to her kindness and support, Kristina is also an incredible scholar whose interests in gender non-conformity in the eighteenth century, gender crossing, and non-normative desires echoed my own. Having someone whose fount of knowledge in this specific area is so deep and broad was a boon for my dissertation writing. Once I was in a tenure track position, it was Kristina who most emphatically encouraged me to turn the dissertation into a book. ASECS has formed and shaped me as a scholar, not just because it helps me stay current in the field, but because it has allowed me to be mentored by such amazing people like Kristina. A good mentor doesn't give advice; a good mentor supports you and encourages you and helps you improve yourself. Eventually, I managed to find more mentors. Another person who supported me very early on was Kathleen Wilson, an eighteenth-century historian of empire at my home institution. I was lucky to find someone who did not mind crossing disciplinary boundaries and, in fact, I think we both benefitted from this crossing. Kathleen has been an enthusiastic supporter of my work who made me feel, from our very first meeting, that my work was valuable and worthwhile rather than amateurish and unevolved. It strikes me that the people who have impacted me in the most positive manner are those who never treated me "like a graduate student," and that phrase itself brings to mind how much I have internalized the idea that graduate students and junior scholars are expected to be "lesser" than more experienced scholars. This feeling of inadequacy that I struggled with for so long, which occasionally still rears its ugly head, has motivated me to try to do better by the graduate students I meet at ASECS now. As someone pointed out to me several years ago: they are our future colleagues. We can and should do better to make graduate students, early career researchers, junior faculty and contingent faculty feel welcome and worthwhile. I will always be inspired by the mentorship of people like Kristina who always, always treated me and my ideas as worthwhile. Thank you!
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AuthorUla Lukszo Klein is the author of Sapphic Crossings, and this blog provides a sneak peek into the book, as well as related content. Archives
April 2021
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