Call for Applications for Successfully Navigating Your Economics Ph.D.: A Mentoring Workshop for 3rd and 4th Year Women/Non-Binary Economics Ph.D. Students
Friday, November 18, 2022
11am-5pm ET, followed by an optional networking reception
Organizers: Celeste Carruthers, Melanie Guldi, Catherine Maclean, and Orgul Ozturk
The 2022 Annual Meeting of the Southern Economic Association (SEA) will take place from Saturday, November 19 through Monday, November 21 in Fort Lauderdale, FL. The mentoring workshop will take place the day before the main SEA meeting (Friday, November 18) and will be held in-person.
APPLICATION DEADLINE: July 29, 2022
Purpose:
In most economics PhD programs, students will have completed their coursework and chosen their fields by the completion of their second year. Then, students face the daunting and exciting task of conducting their own independent research, sometimes for the first time in their lives. Students can feel overwhelmed and lost at this juncture in their studies, and may not always have access to support and resources that can help them navigate graduate school successfully and make the most out of their PhD experience.
Women and non-binary students, who are substantially under-represented in economics education and the profession and face a variety of systemic barriers (Goldin & Olivetti, 2013; Bayer & Rouse, 2016; Hengel, 2017; Mengel et al., 2017; Sarsons, 2017; Lundberg and Stearns, 2019; Wu, 2018), may be at a particular disadvantage, and may lack women/non-binary peers, role models, or mentors in their own departments and networks. The goal of this workshop is to begin to address this need.
Details:
The workshop will be modeled after the first three workshops of this kind, the first of which was held at Stanford University in September 2019 for students from California (organized by Maya Rossin-Slater), the second which was held virtually in November 2020 (organized by Jennifer Doleac and Maya Rossin-Slater), and the third held in person in November 2021 in Houston Texas just prior to the 2021 SEA conference (organized by Jennifer Doleac, Catherine Maclean, Javaeria Qureshi, and Danila Serra). It is also inspired by the successful CeMENT workshop for women assistant professors in economics, which is hosted by the Committee for the Status of Women in the Economics Profession (CSWEP) and the American Economic Association (AEA).
All third- and fourth-year women/non-binary economics Ph.D. students are eligible to apply. Students from under-represented minority backgrounds are strongly encouraged to apply.
Student participants will be organized into small groups based on shared research interests, and each group will be matched with 2 mentors. Mentors will be women/non-binary economists in early stages of their careers – assistant and associate professors in economics and other departments, as well as those employed outside academia (e.g., research think tanks, government positions). The workshop will focus on a variety of issues, including generating research ideas, finding advisors, collaboration and co-authorship, finding opportunities to present research and get feedback, networking, and work-life balance.
The workshop will be held in-person in Fort Lauderdale, Florida prior to the 92nd Southern Economics Association Conference (November 19th to 21st). It will include panels and Q&A sessions, as well as small-group activities and informal discussions, and will be followed by a networking reception for participants. Students will also receive feedback on their research proposals from the mentors.
To Apply:
Please use this form to apply AND submit your CV and a 1-page research proposal via email to info@cswep.org by Friday, July 29, 2022. **Please write “SEA Mentoring Workshop” in the subject line.**
At the top of the research proposal, please clearly state which of the following fields are most closely related to your research idea. You can specify up to 2 fields.
Applied Microeconomics (including Labor, Public, Health, Education, Crime, etc.)
Development Economics
Macroeconomics
International Trade
Microeconomic Theory
Finance
Behavioral Economics
Econometrics
Industrial Organization
Political Economy
Other (Please specify)
The research proposal should outline at least one research idea that you are planning to pursue. You may include more than one research idea. The purpose of the research proposal is to allocate mentees and mentors into groups based on common research interests.
Please contact Catherine Maclean (catherine.maclean@temple.edu) with any questions.
Admission to Workshop:
The workshop will be able to accommodate approximately 35 mentees this year. If demand for the workshop exceeds this number, slots will be randomly allocated among all applicants who meet the workshop eligibility criteria. CSWEP routinely studies the effectiveness of its programming using participant surveys as well as quasi-experimental methods that rely on randomly allocated workshop participation (e.g., Blau et al., 2010). The application form gives you the opportunity to opt out of any future research related to this workshop. Study participation is not a workshop eligibility criteria.
Applicants will be notified about their admission status in August 2022.
Mentors:
If you are a female or non-binary economist within six years of completing your PhD and are interested in serving as a mentor, please contact Catherine Maclean (catherine.maclean@temple.edu).
References
Blau, F. D., Currie, J. M., Croson, R. T., & Ginther, D. K. (2010). Can mentoring help female assistant professors? Interim results from a randomized trial. American Economic Review, 100(2), 348-52.
Bayer, A. and Rouse, C. (2016) Diversity in the economics profession: A new attack on an old problem. Journal of Economic Perspectives 30(4): 221-42.
Bostwick, V. and Weinberg, B. (2022) Nevertheless she persisted? Gender peer effects in doctoral STEM programs. Journal of Labor Economics 40 (2): 000-000.
Goldin, C. and Olivetti, C. (2013) Shocking labor supply: A reassessment of the role of World War II on women's labor supply. American Economic Review 103(3): 257-62.
Hengel, E. (2017) Evidence from peer review that women are held to higher standards. Mimeo.
Lundberg, S. and Stearns, J. (2019) Women in economics: Stalled progress. Journal of Economic Perspectives 33(1): 3-22.
Mengel, F., Sauermann, J., and Zölitz, U. (2019) Gender bias in teaching evaluations. Journal of the European Economic Association 17(2): 535-566.
Sarsons, H. (2017) Recognition for group work: Gender differences in academia. American Economic Review 107(5): 141-45.