Interdisciplinary mentorship offers a unique opportunity to blend knowledges from diverse communities and fields, which can spark innovation and creativity. This reciprocal relationship benefits both mentors and mentees alike, as each learns from the other.

In this month’s Ideas on Fire newsletter, we’re sharing resources for building interdisciplinary mentorship relationships that can withstand the test of time.

Great interdisciplinary mentors come in all forms, and non-academic mentors in particular bring a wealth of career expertise and life advice. Here’s how to forge and nurture those relationships regardless of your career path.

Once you’ve found a great mentor, it’s important to tend to the relationship. Sustaining mentor relations over time takes planning and dedication, and allowing those relations to change as you and your mentors change too.

​Helping mentees achieve their goals takes patience, empathy, and a recognition that their ambitions may not be the same as yours. Truly listening and providing space for another’s difference is at the heart of good mentoring.

As a faculty member, it can be easy to assume graduate students want a professorial career and guide them accordingly. But it is crucial to present the full range of career paths to students. Mentoring students pursuing non-academic careers is both possible and vital even if you don’t have any experience beyond the academy yourself.

​When mentorship and support is lacking in a department (even an interdisciplinary one), faculty from marginalized groups bear the brunt of it. But departments can take an active role in fixing this problem and building interdisciplinary support networks for everyone to succeed.

Here’s to building truly reciprocal and sustainable mentorship relationships!

What to do when you get a book contract Next steps for authors after receiving a scholarly book contract, including manuscript preparation and marketing. Read the article

Getting started with image permissions Obtaining image permissions can be confusing and expensive. Here are some tips to get you started as you decide how you want to illustrate your book. Read the article

Amber Rose González, Felicia “Fe” Montes, and Nadia Zepeda on Mujeres de Maiz The latest episode of Imagine Otherwise features Cathy Hannabach's interview with IoF authors Amber Rose González, Felicia Montes, and Nadia Zepeda—three legendary feminist artists, activists, and scholars from the genre-defying, transnational feminist of color collective Mujeres de Maiz. Amber, Felicia, and Nadia are also editors of a new book called Mujeres de Maiz en Movimiento: Spiritual Artivism, Healing Justice, and Feminist Praxis, which was recently published by the University of Arizona Press and indexed by Ideas on Fire. Explore the episode

📚 New books!

Fascinating new interdisciplinary titles by ​#IoFAuthors​! Grab your copies at our Bookshop storefront to support these scholars, IoF, and your local bookstore.

​Atmospheric Violence​ Disaster and Repair in Kasmir Omer Aijazi University of Pennsylvania Press A touching tribute to the everyday living and survival strategies created in atmospheres of empire and disaster.

​Queens of Afrobeat​ Women, Play, and Fela Kuti's Music Rebellion Dotun Ayobade Indiana University Press A vibrant celebration of the women dancers, musicians, and activists who created the Afrobeat genre of music. Bonus: Stay tuned for an upcoming episode of Imagine Otherwise with host Cathy Hannabach’s interview with Dotun about the Queens and this fantastic book.

​Unsettling Queer Anthropology​ Foundations, Reorientations, and Departures Margot Weiss Duke University Press A vibrant overview of the field of queer anthropology as well as how queer approaches to culture can transform anthropology.

​Trafficking Rhetoric​ Race, Migration, and the Making of Modern-Day Slavery Annie Hill Ohio State University Press A multifaceted critique of how UK anti-trafficking rhetoric mobilizes racially gendered logics to extend state violence.

​Kinethic California​ Dancing Funk and Disco Era Kinships Naomi Macalalad Bragin Ohio State University Press A cultural history of the 1970s Black social dance in California that paved the way for the global hip hop of today.

​Indigenous Science and Technology​ Nahuas and the World around Them Kellie McDonough University of Arizona Press A groundbreaking study of the scientific and technological prowess of Nahuas (Nahuatl speakers) and power of Indigenous science.

📢 Scholarship in public

The Intersections website we edited for the Social Science Research Council’s Religion and the Public Sphere program is now live!

This fantastic resource curates scholarly research at the convergence of religion and international affairs.

A true public scholarship project, Intersections is a treasure trove of data and analysis freely available for journalists, policy makers, scholars, activists, and community organizers.