Mentoring System

Young professionals expect to see “invisibilized” stories and knowledge find a place in the academic spaces of knowledge production, in the heritage spaces, in the public space, in the archives, or in performance venues. Nevertheless, they struggle to articulate these objectives of transforming the modes of production of knowledge with a professional environment that is still very hierarchical and conservative. Working environments are becoming more and more specialized, more and more competitive, more and more standardized.

Primary Needs

Translated toward the needs of (young) professionals, it addresses four primary needs:

1. 1. CONFIDENCE

      Confidence in one’s own knowledge and skills, that are connected to professional and personal trajectories; as well as the same confidence, and thus respect, for knowledge and skills of others.

   2. FRAGILITY

      Fragility should be accepted and claimed to be able to adapt and adjust, but not as an individual in a neoliberal situation – rather by being with others, in specific situations, in reciprocal attention and mutual care.

   3. NETWORKING

      Networking is sometimes experienced as an inauthentic, almost hypocritical practice in the sector. There is room for alternative networking practices based on listening, the openness of professional communities, and a desire and curiosity for what we don’t know or haven’t experienced.

   4. SOLIDARITY

      More fraternity and sorority, help and cooperation, rather than competition. shared experiences, opinions, and emotions are considered part of professional relationships and solidarity between colleagues. Formalizing spaces in which these kinds of relationships can emerge while making room for informal interstices can help break isolation (often experienced by young professionals), create collective action, and legitimize shared difficulties, concerns, or “failures”.

To address these needs a mentoring support system will be launched in 2024:

• An international mentoring program in order to bring together students, young professionals, academics, and more experienced professionals who would like to connect around questions of culture, power hierarchies, and dynamics, alternative forms of knowledge production and transmission, and issues of social transformation.
• Collective co-development sessions to increase contacts in physical or digital spaces, during “peer to peer” sessions, propose short co-training on interdisciplinary topics to produce, transmit, and activate knowledge about professional situations.