Graduate Faculty Mentor of the Year: Adena Rivera-Dundas

Congratulations to Assistant Professor Adena Rivera-Dundas, the 2025-26 English Department Graduate Faculty Mentor of the Year!

In just her fifth year at USU, Adena has already spent three years chairing the Literature, Culture, and Composition graduate program. She has also already supervised two master’s thesis projects, served on the committees of eight other master’s students and one doctoral student, and taught a graduate seminar.

For Adena, mentoring is a hands-on practice, and she is dedicated to meeting weekly for the students whose committees she chairs. Throughout the whole year they are writing, they send her work in progress each week, and she provides thoughtful feedback and discussion on their work. Adena also inspires graduate students to take their work beyond their classes, helping them present in professional conferences.

One of her former students, Zoe Dalley, asked Adena to serve as their thesis committee chair. Zoe notes, “Adena played an active role in the formation of my thesis, giving me advice and looking over my work many times as it took shape. But perhaps even more important, she was always excited and supportive about my work, which made me much more confident to take risks and experiment. Adena played a key part in making my experience as a graduate student rewarding and worthwhile.”

In addition to chairing the Literature, Culture, and Composition graduate program, where she focuses on developing relationships with graduate students, providing them resources, and helping faculty mentors in their own advisory roles, Adena also co-chairs the Works in Progress series with a sociology doctoral student. This series, supported by the Center for Intersectional Gender Studies and Research, invites researchers on the graduate and faculty level to present scholarship to encourage cross-disciplinary research-based relationships between graduate students and faculty.

Beyond USU, Adena extends her mentorship of graduate students into national projects, including her work as an editor for the Black Women Studies Association blog. Here, she facilitates publication opportunities for emerging scholars, many of whom are graduate students earning an early publication credit.

English Department Head Brian McCuskey comments, “By all accounts, Adena gives graduate students the perfect balance of support and rigor and inspires them to do great work. The English Department is proud to name her our Graduate Faculty Mentor of the Year.”