MPSA 2025-2026 Academic Year Mentoring Program

Shape the Future of Political Science Scholarship

The MPSA Academic Year Mentoring Program connects emerging political science scholars with experienced mentors to foster professional growth, research excellence, and career development. Running throughout the 2025-2026 academic year, this program pairs mentees—ranging from graduate students to junior faculty and PhDs in non-academic roles—with mentors who provide tailored guidance in a supportive remote format.

Purpose of the Program

The goal of the MPSA Academic Year Mentoring Program is to empower mentees to achieve their professional and academic aspirations by providing personalized mentorship. Mentors will help mentees navigate challenges such as publishing their research, securing funding, preparing for the job market, navigating the tenure track, or transitioning into alt-academic or non-academic careers. Through one-on-one interactions overt the course of the academic year, mentors will share their own experiences and offer insights, feedback, and encouragement to build mentees’ confidence and skills. The program is also intended to foster lasting professional relationships that strengthen the political science community.

Why Volunteer as a Mentor?

As a mentor, you play a pivotal role in shaping the next generation of political scientists. Benefits include:

Impact: Guide mentees in facing challenges, overcoming obstacles, and achieving milestones such as publishing their first journal article or landing a tenure-track position.
Connection: Build meaningful relationships with emerging scholars and stay engaged with diverse perspectives in the discipline.
Recognition: Enhance your professional profile as a leader committed to advancing political science scholarship.
Flexibility: Commit approximately 10 hours over the academic year, with a schedule tailored to your availability.
Membership: Volunteers who are selected to participate as a mentor in the program will receive a complimentary one-year MPSA membership as a token of appreciation.

What Does Mentoring Involve?

Those who are selected to participate as a mentor will be matched with a single mentee for the duration of the program. Mentors and mentees connect remotely via video chat, phone, and email in a flexible format. The program begins with an initial meeting to align goals and expectations, followed by regular check-ins. At the time of the initial meeting, the MPSA will provide a template that can be used for establishing goals and a rough schedule of future meetings for the academic year.

Substantively, the Mentoring Program is intended to provide career guidance and professional development as opposed to assistance with research, reviewing manuscripts, etc. Common topics of conversation for graduate student mentees include preparing for and navigating the job market, publishing journal articles, transforming a dissertation into a publishable manuscript, teaching new courses, or time management techniques and research strategies; for Ph.D.s and junior faculty, common topics include academic administration, managing university and professional service responsibilities, preparing for tenure or promotion to full professor, pedagogical techniques in the classroom, or strategies for balancing professional productivity with personal wellbeing.

Mentors and mentees are matched by MPSA staff based on alignment between research/teaching interests, career stage, and mentee requests and professional goals, in order to maximize compatibility.

Who Can Be a Mentor?

We welcome applications from faculty, senior researchers, or professionals with advanced degrees in political science or related fields. Mentors should be enthusiastic about supporting mentees from diverse backgrounds including graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, contingent faculty, junior faculty, and PhDs in non-academic positions.

How to Volunteer as a Mentor

Ready to make a difference? Apply to volunteer as a mentor no later than Monday July 21, 2025 by filling out this short form. The process takes only a couple of minutes and asks for:

Your subfield, career stage, and areas of expertise
Your past experience with mentoring
Your mentoring preferences (e.g., career stage of mentee, academic vs. non-academic focus)

Questions?

Please contact MPSA Membership staff at mpsainfo@mpsanet.org for more information.

See what previous participants have to say about the MPSA Mentoring Program:

“This is a really great program for scholars in an early academic career, especially those who lack mentoring support within their own department or school.”

“I had an amazing experience in this program! My mentor was truly caring, inspiring, and insightful. I definitely plan to stay in touch in the future, and I am grateful to the MPSA Mentoring Program for giving us the opportunity to connect.”

“In the past three years I have tried other mentoring programs, but my life changed completely when I was matched with my MPSA mentor. We truly became friends – he is kind, passionate, and helped me to manage my job market stress while guiding me along the way. I feel lucky and I believe he is one of the best mentors out there.”

“Excellent program. The mentorship agreement was helpful in setting expectations and timeframes for meetings. My mentor was extremely helpful and I am thankful for the opportunity and ongoing professional connection.”

“This was a great mentoring partnership where I found a colleague, advisor, and friend. Thank you!”

“The MPSA Mentoring Program is an excellent idea. It matched me with a scholar who has been invaluable in my academic job search, providing timely advice and useful tips.”

“This is a very valuable program. This is the second time I’ve participated and both times have been very useful for my development.”

MPSA Mentoring Reception (Small Group Mentoring) at the Annual Conference

The 2025 Mentoring Reception will be held during the 82nd Annual MPSA Conference on Friday, April 4 from 7:00 – 8:00 PM at the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago, IL

(In-Person Participation Only)

The MPSA Mentoring Reception provides an opportunity for conference attendees who are graduate students, contingent faculty, junior faculty, or PhDs in non-academic positions to meet with faculty mentors over refreshments in a small group setting during the annual conference.

Please note, you must be registered for the in-person conference to participate; there will not be an option to participate virtually.

The call for mentors and mentees for the 2025 MPSA Mentoring Reception has passed. Notifications containing mentee names, contact information, and research questions/conversation topics will be provided to mentors in late March. Shortly after, each participant will receive a message of introduction to others participating in the small group mentoring session. There will be no on-site signups for this event, so you will have plenty of time to review the information for those in your group prior to the event.