The Graduate Student Conference is the flagship component of the SSRC-Mellon Mays Graduate Initiatives Program.  Its purpose is to socialize fellows into the early years of doctoral training and into the national Mellon Mays community.  The Graduate Student Conference focuses specifically on first to third year graduate students and on graduating seniors enrolled in doctoral programs. More advanced graduate fellows, as well as Mellon PhDs, are invited to participate in various capacities—as workshop leaders, discussants and moderators or to deliver a discussion paper around which a group activity might be focused.  Fellows’ presentations are a structuring component of the conference, and other activities focus on providing tools and skills for managing the early years of graduate school and forging important networks throughout the Mellon Mays community.