CSWEP South
(SEA) 95th Annual Meeting
22 November – 24 November 2025
Tampa Marriott Water Street
Tampa, FL
Successfully Navigating Your Economics PhD: A Mentoring Workshop for 3rd, 4th, 5th, and Higher Year Women/Non-Binary Economics PhD Students
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21nd, 2025
10:30am – 5pm ET, followed by an optional networking reception.
Organizers: Brianna Halladay, Orgul Ozturk, Olga Shurchkov
The 2025 Annual Meeting of the Southern Economic Association (SEA) will take place from Saturday, November 22nd through Monday, November 24th in Tampa, FL. The mentoring workshop will take place the day before the main SEA meeting (Friday, November 21st) and will be held in-person. Workshop mentees are not required to attend the SEA.
****APPLICATIONS DUE FRIDAY, July 18th, 2025****
To apply, please use which asks you basic questions and invites you to upload your CV and a one-page research proposal by Friday, July 18th, 2025.
Purpose:
In most economics PhD programs, students will have completed their coursework and chosen their fields by the completion of their second year. Then, students face the daunting and exciting task of conducting their own independent research, sometimes for the first time in their lives. Students can feel overwhelmed and lost at this juncture in their studies and may not always have access to support and resources that can help them navigate graduate school successfully and make the most out of their PhD experience.
Women and non-binary students, who are substantially under-represented in economics education and the profession and face a variety of systemic barriers, may be at a particular disadvantage, and may lack women/non-binary peers, role models, or mentors in their own departments and networks. The goal of this workshop is to begin to address this need.
The material in this Call and used in the workshop is based on the work of Professor Maya Rossin-Slater (National Science Foundation Grant SES-1752203). We are grateful to CSWEP and the Co-Impact Grant for providing funding for the workshop in 2025.
History and Details:
The workshop will be modeled after the first workshops of this kind, the first of which was held at Stanford University in September 2019 for students from California (organized by Professor Maya Rossin-Slater) and the second which was held virtually in November 2020 (organized by Professors Maya Rossin-Slater and Jennifer Doleac). The workshop is also inspired by the CeMENT workshop for women assistant professors in economics, which is hosted by the Committee for the Status of Women in the Economics Profession (CSWEP) and the 蝌蚪网 (蝌蚪网).
All 3rd or higher years women/non-binary economics PhD students are encouraged to apply. Students from under-represented minority backgrounds are strongly encouraged to apply.
Student participants will be organized into small groups based on shared research interests, and each group will be matched with two mentors. Mentors will be women or non-binary economists in early stages of their careers – assistant and associate professors in economics and other departments, as well as those employed outside academia (e.g., research think tanks, government positions, industry). The workshop will focus on a variety of issues, including generating research ideas, finding advisors, collaboration and co-authorship, finding opportunities to present research and get feedback, networking, and work-life balance.
The workshop will include panels and Q&A sessions, as well as small-group activities and informal discussions, and will be followed by an optional networking reception for participants. Student participants will also receive feedback on their research proposals from the mentors. Student participants and mentors are not required to attend the SEA conference.
Don’t hesitate to reach out to any of us on the organizing committee with questions:
Brianna Halladay
Assistant Professor of Economics
Trinity College
Email: brianna.halladay@trincoll.edu
Orgul Ozturk
Department Chair and Professor of Economics
Darla Moore School of Business, the University of South Carolina
Email: odozturk@moore.sc.edu
Olga Shurchkov
Professor of Economics
Paula Phillips Bernstein ‘58 Faculty Director of the Madeleine K. Albright Institute for Global Affairs
Wellesley College
Email: olga.shurchkov@wellesley.edu
Orgul Ozturk, Southern Representative
Department Chair and Professor
Department of Economics
University of South Carolina
Darla Moore School of Business
Room 452I
odozturk@moore.sc.edu