Collaborative Research With Professors and Graduate Students: Stories From the WIGL (Women in Gerontology Legacy) Project

The WIGL (Women in Gerontology Legacy) project is a collaborative research project which engages graduate students on several levels. The project seeks to increase our understanding of the life course experiences of older women gerontologist and also provide mentoring relationships for women gerontology students. The project engaged close to 30 women graduate students over the course of the first year of the project providing them with opportunities to actively engage in research. Students’ roles included data collection through interviewing, transcribing, data coding and analysis, paper presentations at conferences and article writing. The presentation itself will be presented by professors and graduate students from the project. This paper provides information on the benefits and challenges of collaborative research, for both students and professors. Effective strategies and “bumps in the road” will be explored.