President’s Address

Plenary Session: Much Ado About Mentoring

The modern idea of mentoring can be traced back to the figure Mentor who appeared in Homer's epic poem, Odyssey over 3,000 years ago. Currently practiced by such diverse organizations as Big Brothers and Big Sisters, Equal Voice and WISE, as well as on university and college campuses across the country, mentoring is one of the great social innovations and contributions of the humanities and social science. Across many university and college campuses mentoring, increasingly is seen as a core mission. However, despite the proliferation of formal and informal mentoring programs, and the burgeoning literatures on the topic, it is debatable whether we have a deep understanding of the practice. Few empirical studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of mentoring in our disciplines. Some scholars suggest the best mentoring is not necessarily realized in formal or institutionalized settings: the best mentor may be the accidental mentor, one who arises in an informal relationship.

Moreover, truly transformative mentoring relationships tend to be rarer than the proliferation of institutional programs suggest. This cautionary tale has not, however, dampened the claims that everyone should have a mentor, the quest to find the exemplary mentor, or institutional concerns about the factors conducive to successful mentoring. This plenary will do the following: Examine common assumptions about mentoring, the mentor and the mentee/protégé or co‐mentor relationships; map the challenges, including of one‐size‐fits all approaches, cross‐gender and diversity mentoring, potential risks, vulnerabilities and dangers for mentor and mentee; and the opportunities for students, postdoctoral fellows, and especially faculty mentoring in the social sciences and humanities.

Moderated by Malinda Smith, Vice‐President, Equity Issues

• Adelle Blackett, Associate Professor and William Dawson Scholar, Faculty of Law, McGill University
• Larry Chartrand, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa
• James Deaville, Full Professor, Music, School for Studies in Art and Culture: Music, Carleton University
• Donna Pennee, Dean, Arts and Humanities, University of Western Ontario

Plenary Session: Engaged Scholarship

In recent years, the nature of the academic enterprise has undergone numerous shifts. The exclusivity of academic knowledge exists alongside valuing inclusion of various ways of knowing. A focus on research within the disciplines exists now alongside a move toward greater interdisciplinarity and multidisciplinarity. Traditional classroom instruction based on didactics is now challenged by an emphasis on enhancing the student experience through engagement and experiential learning. As the ground has shifted in the academy in these and many other ways, we should explore the key trends for Canadian social sciences and humanities scholars, and consider their broader implications. This session is designed to address the question: WHAT IS ENGAGED SCHOLARSHIP AND HOW SHOULD WE
EVALUATE THAT WORK?

Moderated by Karen Grant, Vice‐President, Research Policy

• Ian Graham (PDF 779KB), Vice‐President, Knowledge Translation, Canadian Institutes of Health Research
• Budd Hall (PDF 843KB), Director, Community‐Based Research, University of Victoria
• Shauna McCabe (PDF 5659KB), Director, Centre for Humanities and Arts Research in Transdisciplinary Space, Mount Allison University