Mentored to Perfection

Simone Dennis is associate dean for Research Engagement, Impact and Innovation in the College of Arts and Social Sciences at Australian National University.Alison Behie is head of the school of archaeology and anthropology at Australian National University.

• Chapter 1. Orienting Concepts and IdeasChapter 2. Know Imitate Thine EnemyChapter 3. Interlude: A Short Note about Secret TransparenciesChapter 4. Haunted by the Undead Patriarchy: New Buildings, SWAN Songs, and SecretsChapter 5. Payback Does Not Appear to be a Bitch (but It Is)

A challenging and persuasive provocation. The current “neoliberal” university is a patriarchal institution in which success is measured according to an “economy of knowledge” that favours men. What is called for, Simone Dennis and Alison Behie argue, in a lucid analysis closely tied to Australian ethnography, is mentorship as a form of what Roslyn Diprose calls “corporeal generosity,” whereby the mentee does not emulate or imitate the mentor but both open themselves to the radical alterity intrinsic to the embodied identity and capability of each. Through such sharing, the order of the same might be transcended and caring institutional forms introduced in which otherness—of women, of the precariat, of individuality itself—is recognised and respected.