Brian Horton and Umrao Sethi Win 2026 Graduate Mentoring Award
April 1, 2026
Abigail Arnold | Office of Graduate Affairs
Brian Horton of Anthropology and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Umrao Sethi of Philosophy are the recipients of the 2026 Graduate Mentoring Award. The students who nominated them enthusiastically praised their support as mentors in all areas.
Horton is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. His nominators noted his thoughtful feedback on their work and his support in the process of applying for competitive fellowships. One student wrote, “Through his careful, thoughtful feedback, my disjointed thoughts solidified into arguments. He has a special talent of understanding the root of what graduate students are trying to argue and helping us translate that into legible questions and arguments for our field.” Another said, “His mentorship has been instrumental to my academic progress, most notably in guiding me through the successful acquisition of four external research grants, including a highly competitive Wenner-Gren Foundation award. These achievements are a direct reflection of his careful guidance, rigorous feedback, and steadfast belief in my work.”
In response to his receipt of the award, Horton said, “It is a privilege to regularly work with our talented MA and PhD students, and I am grateful that they trust me with their ideas and with being in intellectual dialogue with them. As a graduate mentor, I try to emulate my own PhD advisor, Professor Lina Fruzzetti. She taught me that mentoring is different from advising: mentorship is about showing up for students as a professional support system and as a scholarly interlocutor. In lieu of a one size fits all approach, I aim to meet students where they are by designing different approaches based on a graduate student’s needs. I strive to listen and offer advice as best as I can, acknowledge my limitations, and come up with solutions to help students continue to move forward. But, as all of my graduate students will likely attest, I am also not shy about pushing their ideas, asking them to mine the source materials that they draw from, to pursue the unwieldy lines of inquiry, and to rigorously and confidently defend their ideas.”
Sethi is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy. Her nominators described her thoughtful and clear approach to teaching. “She is able to split very complicated concepts and arguments into approachable parts, which is a great help for us in learning and understanding how to engage with philosophy deeply,” said one. “She treats every student equally, respectfully and wholeheartedly.” Another wrote, “Her methodology in teaching is to interpret students’ views in a robust way to help students clarify their ideas and, ultimately, develop original opinions.” One student wrote simply, “Umrao has helped me in every possible way.”
Sethi said, “I’m honored to have been nominated by the graduate students in the Philosophy Department to receive the Graduate Affairs Mentoring Award this year. Having the opportunity to work with our excellent MA students was one of the main things that drew me to Brandeis and it has consistently been one of my favorite parts of the job. It is hard being an early-career graduate student in philosophy. Students need to develop a thick skin fast – philosophy is all about disagreement, so subjecting your work to a steady stream of criticism from your peers and your advisors is essential to becoming a good philosopher. As an advisor, I try to ensure that students understand the process and know that my critical approach comes from a place of respect and optimism about their capacities as young philosophers. I try my best to establish a relationship of trust so that students feel comfortable enough to be vulnerable and accepting of feedback. I hope to emulate advisors I had both as an undergrad and a PhD student – I remember that nothing felt as intellectually exhilarating and motivating as the feeling of being taken fully seriously by someone who also clearly cared about your success. I try to strike this balance in all of the advising I do with our graduate students.”
The Office of Graduate Affairs extends our warmest congratulations to Brian Horton and Umrao Sethi and celebrates all the work they do in mentoring their students.