Mentoring Undergraduate Research and Centering Collaboration

Abstract

Abstract In this article, faculty members from three United States colleges and universities reflect upon mentoring undergraduate research in cultural anthropology and consider the educational and practice-based outcomes of student mentorship. Following a multi-year experience jointly mentoring students, we discuss our trajectories, lessons, and challenges in learning to support and advise undergraduate researchers. We reflect upon the impact of the “lone ethnographer” mentality as well as the possibilities of collaborative research, seeing the university as a site for ethnographic research and developing experiential programs. Collectively, we highlight the need to expand not only options for students to engage in primary research design, data collection, and analysis but also for anthropology departments and institutions to support instructors who prioritize student research opportunities and to provide training so that more instructors may do so confidently.