Call for Proposals

The theme of this year’s session is “Rethinking Hegemonic Masculinities after Twenty-five Years.” We seek papers that reconsider and critically reassess the concept of hegemonic masculinities particularly as they are described by R. W. Connell in Gender and Power: Society, the Person, and Sexual Politics (Stanford University Press, 1987) and as later refined by R. W. Connell and James Messerschmidt in their 2005 article, “Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the Concept” (Gender and Society, Vol. 19 No. 6, December 2005). We urge proposals that pay particular attention to Asian religions; namely, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, Islam, and Zoroastrianism. Are there ritual spaces or practices that sustain or interrupt the performance of hegemonic masculinity? Are there liberative lived communities or constructive thea/ologies that create or sustain a movement toward Connell and Messerschmidt’s proposal for gender democracy? Can the performance of masculinity be “de-linked” from hegemony? Are there lived communities or artistic portrayals of community where this “de-linking” thrives?

Mission

This Group provides a forum within which the phenomenon of masculine gendered identity is examined using the range of methodologies found in the broad fields of theology and religious studies. This Group engages in the critical study of men’s ways of being, behaving, and believing through a critical examination of both hegemonic (dominant and dominating) and nonhegemonic (marginalized) forms of masculinity. Emerging from, and pairing with, the liberative and critical gender discourses found in feminist, gay, and queer studies, this area of intellectual concentration focuses on the phenomenon of "men qua men" and its impact on the religious and theological terrain. The Group calls men to greater self-awareness and critical self-reflection regarding their own identies as people and scholars.

Anonymity of Review Process

Proposer names are visible to Chairs but anonymous to steering committee members.

Questions?

Robert A. Atkins
Grace United Methodist Church, Naperville, IL
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Garth Kasimu Baker-Fletcher
Texas College
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Method of Submission