Nayeli Garci-Crespo
Ph.D. candidate, Literature
When Nayeli Garci-Crespo decided that she wanted to spend her undergraduate years studying filmmaking, the University of Southern California seemed a logical choice. She was soon turned off, however, by the Tinseltown influence on the school’s film program. “I never ended up applying to the film department because I had many friends who were dissatisfied with the program’s being so geared toward the Hollywood industry,” explains the Mexico City native. Nayeli instead chose to major in English and Philosophy and later began setting her sights on a master of fine arts (MFA) in film. However, the lack of funding for international MFA candidates combined with her passion for critical studies led her to apply to Ph.D. programs. After receiving a master’s in Latin American literature from Columbia University, Nayeli left the school to enter Duke’s literature program.
Part of Nayeli’s decision to leave Columbia had to do with what she perceived as a lack of faculty support at the school. Here at Duke, however, Nayeli has developed strong mentoring relationships with professors Susan Willis and Jane Gaines. Now in her fifth year of graduate study, Nayeli is well aware of how crucial such relationships are to a graduate student’s success. “Graduate school can be very daunting. Particularly in the later years there is a lack of structure, and it’s really good to have someone rooting for you.”
Nayeli’s experiences with Gaines and Willis illustrate how varying styles of mentoring can be equally beneficial. When speaking of her mentors, Nayeli explains, “Their styles are completely different, but they are both very dedicated to supporting their students. Jane Gaines is very good at pushing me to get things done and introducing me to new books in the area of film studies. Susan Willis is wonderful at supporting me in fulfilling my own aspirations, no matter what they are. I really feel that she cares about me as a whole person and is interested in seeing me succeed in a way that makes me happy.”
As she reflects on her early years at Duke, Nayeli speaks of the disillusionment that so often follows the initial enthusiasm of newly matriculated Ph.D. candidates. “Initially, I was elated when I arrived here because the environment was so much friendlier than at Columbia. However, I soon became disillusioned when I found that graduate school can be quite a souldeadening experience, even at Duke.” Fortunately, her mentors have provided invaluable support through the tough times. “I think I would have dropped out of grad school if I had not had their encouragement,” she says.
Nayeli’s passion for filmmaking began early in life. “I have wanted to be a filmmaker since I was an adolescent,” she says as she begins to describe the experiences that led to her current path. “Though my interest in cultural studies was always there, I did not know there was a tradition in academic study of it until my later years in college. However, the key texts that really got me interested in cultural studies I became familiar with not through school but through friends, some of whom never attended college.”
Nayeli’s research is centered around independent film, film technologies, urban countercultures, and urban youth subcultures. Since much of her work crosses disciplines, she has benefited greatly from the interdisciplinary nature of Duke’s literature program.
Nayeli’s discussion of her extracurricular pursuits reveals a diversity of activities and a wide range of intellectual curiosity. When she’s not studying, she enjoys playing drums, doing carpentry work, and “pursuing academic interests for which I don’t have a background, such as neuroscience.” (Wow.) After graduation, Nayeli plans to teach film and critical studies and produce independent films. When asked what makes a good mentor, her response is concise and on point. “A good mentor is someone who’s willing to go to bat for you, who really cares about you as a person, and who believes you are here to get an education, not just a job.”
Susan Willis
Associate Professor, Literature Program
For Susan Willis, mentoring and teacher training are closely related. “As I see it, the mentor’s role is to assist a graduate student’s development of teaching skills, approaches, and strategies,” says Willis. “A mentor should not dominate the relationship, but should facilitate the student’s recognition of teaching strengths, intellectual confidence, and, finally, a sense of autonomy. The mentoring relationship provides a valuable bridge to the sort of teaching demands and tasks that await every newly employed assistant professor.”
Professor Willis recommends that graduate students seek mentors who will challenge them in an environment of reciprocity and support. She cites intellectual and personal compatibility as key factors in a graduate mentoring relationship. Willis defines compatibility not as agreement on all issues but rather as “the ability to appreciate each other’s positions on issues and contributions to the teaching process.” Equally important is a sense of shared responsibility. “Mentors should not relegate all the tedious bureaucratic tasks to the graduate student, but should enable the student to participate in all aspects of teaching,” she explains. “Mentors should create a classroom climate in which graduate students are valued as teaching partners.”
Willis insists that the best mentoring relationships involve a process of give-and-take. “New mentors should realize that their teaching strategies may not work equally well for their mentees. Indeed, the mentoring relationship can benefit the faculty mentor through the development of fresh, new approaches. Finally, new faculty mentors should bear in mind that their mentees are just one step away from claiming assistant professorships and should be regarded as teaching colleagues.
Jane Gaines
Associate Professor, Literature Program
Like many excellent mentors, Professor Jane Gaines views mentoring as a process of professional collaboration and exchange. “When professors develop relationships with students it is often because they have similar interests. Yes, we do provide the model that helps grad students imagine what it might be like to work as a scholar and university professor, but that is the easy part. The real challenge is to develop an intellectual relationship in which professor and student can share discoveries because they are committed to researching the same difficult problems.”
Gaines’s views on mentoring are informed by recent exciting developments in the field of film and video technology. “In the area of film, video, and digital culture, we are all at an exciting place where the technologies are changing very rapidly,” Gaines points out. “There are relatively few of us working in this area and we need every mind working on these issues and learning these machines.” Her enthusiasm for her discipline manifests itself in her description of the mentoring relationship between her and Nayeli: “I think in the case of Nayeli and others working in this area, we are just caught up together in the excitement.”
(This profile originally appeared in the Winter 2001 issue of The GRIND.)