Sub/versing mentoring expectations: Duration, discernment, diffraction

The three of us have shared co-mentoring relationships over the last decade. Rita was the PhD supervisor for both Natalie and Valerie and while working with them and other PhD students, came to believe that goals are reciprocal in many ways. In this article, we attend to the concept of co-mentoring, an exchange that includes three qualities guiding ongoing artistic, professional and scholarly work. These subversive qualities are described as: a) duration, b) discernment, and c) diffraction. From a practice-based, new materialist lens, we take turns describing how each quality is important to co-mentoring relationships and we provide theoretical and practical examples for each. It is our hope that in considering these qualities, co-mentoring relationships might help us reimagine what is possible among graduate students and faculty members, encouraging co-mentoring relationships in today’s academy