By themselves, each of the deaf academics in the UK and Ireland has built up a wealth of experience and insider knowledge. However, many deaf academics have few or no deaf peers in their institution, and they may not have access to this body of informal knowledge of other deaf academics. Therefore, investing time and energy in deaf academic networks is of crucial importance and very rewarding. DUKIA wants to support deaf people to network effectively by supporting deaf people to find peer support and mentoring.
The idea is for people who want to exchange experiences or to gain advice, to either contact peers (eg. Ma students exchanging with each other), or to contact one or more mentors who are more experienced on the academic journey or further in their study or career paths (such as a junior PhD student contacting a senior PhD student or a postdoc; or a postdoc consulting a deaf academic with a permanent position). A mentor or peer supporter in academia is someone who shares their personal experience as well as general knowledge and insights they gained in relation to navigating academia. They can act as a coach and provide support, and sometimes they also will think along about future careers and can facilitate links between people. Mentoring can pertain general issues in academia or can be specific in relation to a particular challenge or discipline. More information about our mentoring programme can be found here, as well as a list of deaf academics willing to be mentors.