123 Insights: Fall 2017 Vol. 48:3 Notes from the CCWH Happy Academic New Year! Mary Ann Villarreal, Co-President, CCWH We have an exciting year our new mentorship program, I ship is less beneficial to both ahead: the CCWH Mentorship want to suggest some ideas parties than one that adjusts and Program is getting ready to based on colleagues’ perspec- adapts to the needs of one start with new mentorship re- tives, and published promising another. Accepting that the men- lationships, we are preparing practices. tor will learn as much from the for our 50th anniversary, and Know Yourself – Set goals. mentee as the mentee will learn soon we will officially an- Why a mentor? Why now? Be from the mentor will create an nounce the Rachel Fuchs Ser- honest about how you work. If environment where both partici- vice and Mentorship Award as you are a person who prefers pants thrive. part of that celebration. structure, who needs set times You Change – Mentors serve The three events represent the and dates, then ask for regular different capacities over the core of the CCWH: longevity, meeting times. If you are going course of our careers. There are resilience, and mentorship. to drop in or do not keep a mentors who bring balance Since I started my Co-Presi- regular schedule, be mindful of when you struggle with how to dency, I have used this space to how the mentor schedules their manage so many different parts reflect on the significance that time. of your life. There are mentors the CCWH played in my grad- Mentorship Relationship who can help you focus on areas uate training and the incredible Change – As you start working where you struggle. Sometimes women scholar activists that with your mentor, you start we need a mentor who straight entered my life as a result. sharing ideas and your know- up tells you what must happen Some of them, like Rachel ledge with them. Both sides next for your success. Each Fuchs, served as a mentor at benefit and it is not exclusively mentor will have their own two different points in my one person imparting wisdom to approach and it is important to career. As we prepare to launch the other. A stagnant relation- listen to their perspective and al- 123 INSIGHTS: NOTES FROM THE CCWH low yourself to grow from their set out beacons along the path, knowledge. but they never tell me which Promising Practices – path I should choose. They have Faculty Mentoring Models and taught me to look at potential Effective Practices, published obstacles, and sometimes gently in 2014 by Hanover Research, and sometimes not so gently, offers a set of mentoring have challenged how I respond activities. Repeatedly, the liter- to the unanticipated challenges ature on mentorships empha- that have emerged. sizes the need to set goals and As the product of a small rural strategies. Hold us, the CCWH public school, I arrived at my leadership, accountable. If we undergraduate institution under- are to achieve outcomes, we prepared and, in many ways, Mary Ann Villarreal have to know what we can do unaware. I had, in my toolkit, to increase the success of the two undergraduate saving ex- exclusion. They might become program. The Alliance for Ad- periences: one, a taught love for integral parts of my life as they vancing the Academic Medi- writing; and, a high school witness my life and all of its cine Workplace Recommen- mentor, who nurtured that love parts unfold: death of a family dations offers a set of sug- and was very clear that I needed member, first teaching job, birth gestions that the organization to find a place where I could of a child, first publication, etc. hosting the program might thrive. While I sought to find Still today, mentorship plays consider. We are open to a- the easiest way out, she firmly such a critical part of my dapting and provide support guided me along a path that personal and professional devel- and resources where needed. made me step up to a greater opment. Navigating higher edu- A note to mentors: Please potential. What I learned from cation requires a political savvy know that we don’t always her is that I needed to ask for that we are not taught in grad- know what we seek or how to guidance. uate school in preparation for talk about our goals without None of my mentors have our first job. Mentorship re- fear of being shamed or started out as my friends. They quires a vulnerability of the un- chastised for speaking our were teachers, bosses, speakers I known, being open, and honesty. dream goals. I once sought out heard, or people who had been someone who had gone through suggested to me as someone I a leadership program, thinking should meet. My relationship Join Us for the CCWH she might be willing to mentor with my graduate committee Annual Awards me. She asked what I wanted started from this place: a first Luncheon at the AHA to do with my career. I said generation student who knew that I wanted to be a president nothing about the path I found Make plans to join us for the one day. She looked at me and myself on. I consumed every CCWH Annual Awards Lun- said, “You should never say thought and word that Vicki cheon at the AHA in Washing- that out loud. People will think Ruiz, Noel Stowe, and Rachel ton, D.C. on January 6th. Ula you are being arrogant.” I Fuchs shared with me. When Taylor of UC Berkeley will give found another mentor. And, they presented me with choices, the keynote address entitled yes, I do want to be a president. I was confused. I needed a de- “The Promise of Patriarchy.” My dream job: President of cision, not choices. They taught Tickets are $35 for full-time Mount Holyoke College. me to stand in the muddy wa- employed and $10 for graduate I believe that mentorship can ters, to watch it settle or just students. Tickets are available work both when it happens to move on. They taught me that I for purchase through the AHA us and when we seek out a am not alone in this journey that or by contacting Sandra Trudgen specific person. Throughout is fraught with contradictions, Dawson ([email protected]) my experiences, mentors have disappointments, and politics of 3 Notes from the Washington, D.C. The title of her talk is “The Promise of Pa- Executive Director triarchy.” Please consider com- Sandra Trudgen Dawson ing to this luncheon. Tickets Executive Director, CCWH will be on sale through the AHA registration portal or you may Dear Members, buy your lunch directly from me ([email protected]). This summer I read several We have a number of CCWH non-historical books. One of co-sponsored panels and events at the AHA in January that them was Born a Crime by Sandra Trudgen Dawson Trevor Noah. Set against the include “Starving Women’s backdrop of South Africa in the Bodies,” “Black Women and In- th An Expanded CCWH early 1980s, Noah’s funny and ternationalism in the 20 Cen- heartbreaking memoir reveals tury,” “The Politics of Domestic Host Program! how his mother’s crime – Service in Asia and the Amer- having sex and reproducing icas, 1870-2015,” “Dismantling Our Membership Coordinator, with a white man – impacted Boundaries: Women’s Histori- Ilaria Scaglia, writes that it is their lives. When Trevor was a ans and the Transformation of with great joy to announce the small child, he was hidden in History,” “Experiencing War: expansion of the CCWH Host his grandmother’s home away Refugees, Alliances, and Fight- Program, which provides all of from the police who would ers.” Please support these pan- us with the opportunity of stay- seize a “colored child” from the els and our CCWH members! ing at other members’ houses streets and arrest his mother for In 2019, the CCWH will when traveling for conferences her crime. Noah calls the celebrate the organization’s fif- and/or short research trips. Apartheid system in South tieth anniversary. One of the Africa, “perfect racism” where ways that we can begin to cele- We now have a new Host “racial” groups were segregated brate is at the AHA in January Program Coordinator, Bridget by language, housing, work, 2019. Please let me know if Keown, who will be assisted by education, and violent policing. you would like to put together Elise Leal and Deirdre Lannon Born a Crime reminds us that panels, roundtable discussions, Albrecht. love and faith are powerful, but or workshops at the AHA in that they are not always enough January 2019 in Chicago. For more information and for when facing deep-rooted dis- Finally, please join me in a map of available locations, crimination and brutality within welcoming Elyssa Ford, Assis- see https://theccwh.org/ccwh re- the home and outside. Apart- tant Professor of History, North- sources/host-program/. heid remained institutionalized west Missouri State University, until 1991. I highly recom- as the CCWH Public History Thank you for stepping up to mend the book for anyone Representative. We are so hap- fill these positions! Thanks also interested in race and the poli- py that you have joined us to to all of the hosts who have al- tics of oppression. help the CCWH build a greater ready agreed to open their Those of you interested in presence in Public History! homes. If you can, please con- other forms of oppression will sider adding your name.