For the second year in a row, the Austria Centre Leiden sponsored a festive gathering for the Paula Hyman Mentorship Program at the Annual Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies, which convened in San Francisco, California, USA in December 2023. This meeting allowed Hyman Committee Members to meet the young researchers who benefit from this program, which was established in the memory of Professor Paula Hyman (1946-2011), a pioneering scholar of Jewish history and a dedicated mentor to women in Jewish Studies.
The Hyman Mentorship Program pairs emerging scholars with experienced mentors, while also building a strong network among the cohort through group workshops. Further, the program focuses on professional development for early career scholars from underrepresented genders. Austria Centre Leiden Director, Prof. Dr. Sarah A. Cramsey, serves on this mentoring committee. Our new colleague Dr. Rebekka Grossmann, who is an Assistant Professor at the Leiden Institute History, is a former mentee within this program as well so the connections between the Hyman Program and Leiden run deep.
According to Prof. Melissa Weininger (California State University, Northridge) who co-chairs the program, "a big component of the Hyman Mentorship Program is fostering community and connection within our mentorship cohort, between mentors, mentees, and the steering committee, as well as between mentees themselves." Thanks to the support of the Austria Centre Leiden, the relaxed social gathering which took place in a stunning restaurant on the top floor of the conference hotel encouraged "multidirectional mentoring networks" and, simply, good conversation.
While at the 2023 Association for Jewish Studies Conference, our director Prof. dr. Cramsey updated AJS President Prof. Robin Judd (The Ohio State University) on happenings at the Austria Centre Leiden and congratulated her on convening a successful and secure event.
