ABSTRACT
Social networks play a significant role in academic success. This chapter explains the importance of having a broad range of support, reviews barriers to networking and ways to overcome them, and offers practical strategies for how to develop our own network. Many colleges offer official mentoring programs that pair a junior faculty member with a senior colleague, often from outside her own department, and encourage the pair to meet at least a few times a year. For women of color and others who might be one of a few or the only member of their cultural group in a department, an important source of additional support may be affinity groups with other people in their discipline or at their institution who share their cultural identity. Many academics respond to the suggestion that they work to enlarge their social networks with a shudder of discomfort.
