Cultivating New Voices Among Scholars of Color
By Lisa Roy-Davis

The nice thing about this program is that each of the research fellows has been matched up with a mentor, someone of color who is experienced with publishing and able to guide our work. I’m working with Eileen Oliver who is an assistant dean at Cal State San Marcos. She’s been very helpful.

The program spans two years, over which time the research fellows have gathered for workshops together with their mentors to work on the projects, discuss aspects of publishing and get tips for surviving as scholars of color in the field. It’s been a marvelous opportunity to network and get some experience. I’d highly recommend others from the caucus to apply for the next round.

The meeting in NCTE Baltimore was our third workshop – we have one more in the spring and then we’re done. Then, we’re supposed to be able to publish what we have.

Oh, and we had all our travel expenses paid to the convention and conferences, plus $1200 available for incidentals pertaining to research ($600 each year of the program). We were encouraged to buy software, build up our libraries and pay for help with our work, wherever possible. So that’s been a pretty sweet deal, too.

If you have any questions, let me know.
Or visit the site at http://www.ncte.org/grants/newvoices.shtml