K-SAA Mentorship Program & The 1819 Social

In 2005, Jeanne Moskal founded the K-SAA Mentorship Program, laying the groundwork for decades of mentor-protégée pairings across generations of upcoming and senior Romantic scholars. Stephen Behrendt then oversaw the program through 2015. Beginning in Fall 2024, K-SAA under the leadership of Chris Rovee will launch the 1819 Social a new iteration of horizontal mentorship, adding to our longstanding tradition of mentor pairs. 

One-on-one Mentor Pairings

“I created the K-SAA's Mentoring Project in 2005. As the incoming Book Review Editor, I began to attend the Board meetings and become better acquainted with the Directors. A few of them belonged to a group I'd noticed before: first-rate scholars without graduate students to inherit (and, in turn, expand, nuance, or update) their expertise. I remembered, too, my own struggles as a unmentored assistant professor, struggles which resemble those reported to me by several colleagues. The idea came: Why not put these two groups together? It seemed important to stipulate that the proteges have PhD in hand, in order to avoid conflict with their dissertation directors. It also seemed important to limit the commitment to one year, to prevent mentor burnout. I brought the idea to the Board as a three-year pilot project. The Board approved it enthusiastically. I organized the first year's cohort of mentors and protégées. I had to set aside the hands-on responsibility for the Mentoring Project when I became the K-SJ's Editor the next year. Gina Luria Walker organized the next year's cohort. Arnold A. Markley succeeded her, and he was succeeded in turn by Steve Behrendt. When I last checked, about two years ago, the Mentoring Project had served about 70 junior scholars.”

—Prof. Jeanne Moskal, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

For almost two decades, K-SAA has helped to put early career scholars in touch with mentors — for advice on scholarship, writing, and career trajectory from colleagues with similar interests outside their home departments. We believe that individual relationships make for strong, larger communities, and we hope to continue to help build lifetime friendships and collaborations. Please be in contact (see info below) if you would like to find a mentor — or to be one.

The 1819 Social

The 1819 Social is conceived as a site for community among graduate-student, early-career, and  independent scholars. It represents a structured rejuvenation of the mentoring program long  hosted by K-SAA, remodeled along lines pertinent to early-career scholars working in the mid 2020s. The 1819 Social aims to find a productive balance between the intergenerational and the  intragenerational as a basis for professional and collegial connection. It marks a gentle move away  from a conventionally vertical, one-to-one mentorship model, and toward a community-based  model that yet aims to preserve the most effective aspects of intergenerational mentorship. Above  all, the 1819 Social—as a unique mentorship program—is conceived with the ideal of a supportive  community in mind as a source of camaraderie, feedback, and knowledge. This shift is indicated by  the mentorship program’s new name, signaling its predominantly communal character.

The target audiences for the 1819 Social are early-career members (broadly defined) who seek a sense of belonging to a community beyond their particular institution or region. These may include current graduate students, recent PHds, postdocs, instructors, VAPs, early-stage assistant  professors, and independent scholars. Despite the group name, which centers a key year of second generation romanticism, the 1819 Social would be open to all K-SAA members and thus inclusive of scholars working in 18C and Victorian studies (and beyond). 

The 1819 Social will host a set of professional and social activities to bring together the relevant constituencies beginning Fall 2025, including virtual workshops on topics of interest to members, such as: editing/editorship;  generating book proposals; ‘How I Write’ conversations; alt-ac employment; forming  writing groups; conference meet-ups; and one-on-one matching and mentoring.

Contact. Please contact Christopher Rovee (crovee (at) LSU (dot) edu) to get involved with the program or learn more.