Natasha Wheatley Honored For Excellence in Mentoring Graduate Students

Written by
Jennifer Altmann for the Office of Communications
May 20, 2022

Natasha Wheatley, assistant professor of History, is one of four Princeton University faculty members named recipients of the Graduate Mentoring Awards by the McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning. The recipients will be honored during the Graduate School's Hooding ceremony at 4:30pm on Monday, May 23.

The award winners are Anna Arabindan-Kesson, assistant professor of art and archaeology and African American studies; Mark Brynildsen, associate professor of chemical and biological engineering; Curtis Callan, the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Physics; and Natasha Wheatley, assistant professor of history.

The mentoring award recognizes Princeton faculty members who nurture the intellectual, professional and personal growth of their graduate students. Graduate students nominate faculty members for the award, and they serve on the committee that selects the winners together with faculty members, senior staff from the McGraw Center and the deputy dean of the Graduate School. The award honors faculty in each academic division (engineering, humanities, natural sciences and social sciences) and includes a $1,000 prize and a commemorative gift.

Natasha Wheatley, who has been at Princeton since 2017, is an historian of modern European and international history.  

Wheatley’s commitment to building community among the students earned her praise, as did the detailed comments Wheatley provided on their work. “Her substantive feedback for drafts I have submitted have reached half the length of the actual paper,” one student said. “I can clearly see how Professor Wheatley’s advising has made me a stronger writer and more creative thinker.”  

Students were also thankful for her collegiality. “Professor Wheatley treated me as a colleague while also mentoring me in the practice of undergraduate teaching,” one student said. “I had a once-in-a-lifetime role model and mentor.”   

“Professor Wheatley has a way of getting to the analytic and thematic heart of any project, even if it lies way outside her area of expertise,” another student observed. “This speaks to her intellectual generosity and curiosity, arguably the two most important qualities of any academic mentor.”