by Stephen Sweet, Ithaca College

The Sloan Work and Family Research Network is proud to announce the launch of its Early Career Scholars Program. The goal of this project is to develop supports for recent doctoral recipients and facilitate their teaching and research scholarship. By offering resources and consultation, the initiative will help move promising young scholars into tenured appointments and secure senior level positions, as well as keep them firmly embedded within the work-family community. Stephen Sweet (Ithaca College) will be coordinating these efforts.

The idea for this initiative emerged from a discussion led by Kathleen Christensen with directors of a number of the Sloan Centers on Working Families, who shared their observations concerning the challenges pre-doctoral and post-doctoral students faced as they moved into their jobs from the Sloan Centers. Through this discussion, it became clear that newer faculty commonly found themselves isolated in positions that lack the mentorship and supports that were present in their graduate and post-doctoral institutions.

All applicants to the Early Career Scholars Program will receive periodic mailings of opportunities of special interest to junior work-family scholars. A core group of 15 junior scholars will be identified to create a team of emergent work-family leaders. This group will develop collaborative projects that contribute to their teaching and research scholarship, and participate in periodic teleconferences. They will engage in peer-mentorship, as they review each other’s manuscripts and grant applications in draft form. They will also be invited to participate in pre-conferences to be held in advance of the annual meetings sponsored by the various Sloan Centers on Working Families. The Sloan Work and Family Research Network will be able to supplement travel expenses to these events.

To launch the Early Career Scholars Program, recent Ph.D. recipients are being identified and contacted. Many are being located through their previous affiliations with Sloan Centers on Working Families, and others are being located by canvassing Dissertation Abstracts for the authors of recent theses on work-family issues. These individuals will be encouraged to apply, along with open calls for applications.

We appreciate members of the work-family community passing along this announcement to former students and junior level associates. We are keenly interested in providing resources to newer Ph.D.s whose doctoral work had a strong work-family focus. To be eligible, candidates must have received their doctorates in 2002 or later, and have yet to progress into tenured or secure positions.

The application can be found at: http://wfnetwork.bc.edu/template.php?name=earlycareers

Questions about the program can be addressed to Stephen Sweet: ssweet@ithaca.edu.