The Jay Fliegelman Excellence in Mentorship Award

In 2007-08, the Graduate Student Caucus established the Excellence in Mentorship Award, recently renamed the Jay Fliegelman Excellence in Mentorship Award. This award, which will be given out at the annual ASECS meeting, recognizes a faculty member who has generously supported his or her graduate students by helping them excel in their scholarship, teaching, and professionalization.

Jay Fliegelman, who passed away in Fall 2007, is widely recognized as one of the most important scholars of eighteenth century British North America. His two books, Prodigals and Pilgrims and Declaring Independence, reshaped the study of the period not only in terms of their account of the inner workings of the eighteenth century Anglo-American world, but also, and perhaps more importantly, through their commitment to an interdisciplinary methodology that combined not only literary and historical approaches, but also integrated material culture, history of the book, and performance theory before it was fashionable to do so. Through his books Fliegelman opened up to several generations of literary scholars a period that had been almost entirely the province of historians. That he did so is no accident. While Fliegelman was justly proud of his books, most anyone who knew him would acknowledge that for him his most important work was his mentorship of graduate students. Simply put, Fliegelman was devoted to his students. In Prodigals he studied the way the ideal of mentorship and mentoring relationships emerged as a critical concept in the eighteenth century. In his role as dissertation advisor Fliegelman embodied the best of that ideal: he guided his students gently but firmly. He sought to bring out the best of each of them, rather than impose his vision upon them. This explains why Jay’s students work not only in such a wide range of subjects and periods, but also employ a wide variety of methods. Although he impressed certain fundamental intellectual values upon his students, he never demanded that his students employ a specific method or adopt particular practices (with the possible exception of the importance of close reading). This combination of dedication and respect for his students meant that Fliegelman was not only respected and admired by his students in turn, but he was also loved.

If you would like to recommend your mentor for next year’s award, we will begin soliciting nominations in September 2009. The deadline will be December 15. Watch for an email with instructions. Nominations require two letters of support, one of which must be from a current graduate student, and a brief c.v. (four pages maximum). The nominations are evaluated by an interdisciplinary group of graduate students, headed by Jarrod Hurlbert, Graduate Student Caucus Co-Chair, at jarrod.hurlbert@mu.edu.

Award Recipients

2008-09: Professor Katherine Arens, University of Texas, Austin

The Graduate Student Caucus is pleased to announce that Professor Katherine Arens is the second recipient of the Jay Fliegelman Excellence in Mentorship Award. Professor Arens was nominated four times–twice each year of the award’s inception. The selection committee was struck by Professor Arens’ ability and willingness to work with a large number of students across disciplinary boundaries. In the words of one nominator, “She is known to an ever-expanding cohort of students across nearly every department. Her informal, unacknowledged advising and teaching are far in excess of any official expectation.” Nor does she sacrifice depth with this breadth: she takes a proactive role in ensuring students’ ability to work productively--sending books, giving shape to students’ professionalization efforts, accepting a generous and productive role in helping students find financial resources. The GSC is delighted to honor Professor Arens for her generous and interdisciplinary vision of what it means to mentor junior scholars.

2007-08: Professor Felicity Nussbaum, University of California, Los Angeles

Professor Nussbaum is the first recipient of the Jay Fliegelman Excellence in Mentorship Award. In this inaugural year for the award, there were 23 outstanding nominations. The eloquent letters written in support of Professor Nussbaum showed particular breadth and depth of enthusiasm. She converts students to eighteenth-century studies. She rigorously reads multiple drafts of chapters, papers, articles, and job market materials. She helped initiate publishing workshops at UCLA. She mentors students beyond their dissertation and through the first book and tenure process. And she has been supportive of the ASECS Graduate Student Caucus. As one former student wrote, “[F]or me personally, she has been a role model for what it means to be a good professor, and has taught me to think of collegiality and student mentoring as one of the best privileges of academia.” The GSC is honored to have such a distinguished mentor receive the award.

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