Sisters Mentoring

Sisters-mentoring (previously known as sisters-academia) is a moderated mailing list to provide mentoring to Ph.D. students and faculty members (particularly junior faculty) in computer science, computer engineering, or information technology to assist them in being more successful in academic research careers.

To limit traffic, the topics and process are very limited. Relevant topics include issues involved in getting a Ph.D. and in being successful in a university research career. Appropriate questions are limited to those for which it is important that the responders be women (e.g., questions on teaching are more appropriate for ProfessHers). Unlike many mailing lists, questions are sent out to the list and then members respond to the sender (not to the list). The sender then collects the replies and distributes them in one email summary. Upon request to the moderator, anonymous messages can be posted if the sender is worried about saying something that might hurt her career. For the most sensitive issues where the sender is worried about being identified by others on the list, a sublist of VERY senior women (and vetted by the sender) can be used to generate advice rather than the entire list. Sisters-mentoring differs from ProfessHers by the lesser mail traffic (which encourages the participation of very senior women on the list), the limitations on topics, and the inclusion of Ph.D. students and postdocs.

If you are a woman interested in being included in a list for faculty and Ph.D. students, please contact Nancy Leveson by e-mailing to leveson "at" mit.edu.