The Centre for Gender Studies will hold its sixth annual symposium this weekend. The event will explore the ways in which different cultures have constructed their views of what it means to be a man, and in particular the recurring tendency for cultures to create masculinities which attempt to essentialise male identity by defining it according to a universal set of fixed values.
The Centre for Gender Studies will hold its sixth annual symposium this weekend. The event will explore the ways in which different cultures have constructed their views of what it means to be a man, and in particular the recurring tendency for cultures to create masculinities which attempt to essentialise male identity by defining it according to a universal set of fixed values.
In the morning two keynote addresses will illustrate this idea with historical examples: Professor Robin Osborne will describe the Classical view of masculinity and Professor Malcolm Bowie will explore masculinity in 19th century France. A roundtable discussion in the afternoon will bring the discussion up to the present day, looking at modern scientific views of masculinity and the place of European ideas about masculinity in a multicultural society.
This is the first time that the Centre for Gender Studies has run a symposium specifically about masculinity. Dr Marc Stears, one of the organisers of the symposium, is looking forward to a lively event:
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