Kristin Turney is a first-year William T. Grant Scholar. She has mentored 15 doctoral students in a formal mentoring capacity, serving on committees, supervising research assistantships, and collaborating with students on research projects. With her mentoring award, she would like to develop strategies to help students cultivate independent research agendas. She would also like to heighten her capacity for mentoring across difference by engaging in conversations with mentors of her own who have had success in mentoring across racial and ethnic difference; utilizing institutional resources at the University of California, Irvine aimed at recruiting and retaining students of color; and reading supplemental literature. The award will support her mentee, Janet Muñiz, a third-year Latina doctoral student in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Irvine. Muñiz’s research interests focus on social inequalities in urban communities towards informing policy that can positively influence the lives of youth who grow up in economically disadvantaged areas. She has four goals for this award: 1) to gain professional development experience through attending a qualitative analysis workshop, attending up to two academic conferences per year, and creating a network of scholars and mentors; 2) to develop an independent research project leading to a sole-authored manuscript on how incarcerated men engage in the formal economy; 3) to write a sole authored publication based on her Master’s thesis and a co-authored publication with her mentor; and 4) to develop strong qualitative analysis skills as part of her independent research project by developing a targeted interview guide and coding process, and writing analytical memos of preliminary findings.
Turney seeks to develop strategies to help students cultivate independent research agendas, and to heighten her capacity for mentoring across difference.
