Michael S. Kimmel, a sociologist and author who has received international recognition for his work on men and masculinity, will speak on "Globalization and its Mal(e)contents: The Political Economy of Terrorism," on Thursday, March 6, at 7:30 p.m. in the Kirner-Johnson building auditorium. His talk is part of the Kirkland Project "Masculinities" series. This lecture relates masculinities, violence, and war, taking as its point of departure events of 9/11/01 and focusing on the intersections of race, gender, and class. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is co-sponsored by the department of sociology and the Levitt Public Affairs Center.
Kimmel's newest book, The Gendered Society (Oxford University Press, 2000), and a companion volume of readings, have been hailed as the touchstone works for courses in gender studies and social science courses on gender. He has three books forthcoming this year: The Invisible Sex: Masculinity in Contemporary America (University of California Press); The History of Masculinity: Essays (SUNY Press) and The Gender of Desire: Essays on Masculinity and Sexuality (SUNY Press).
His 1996 book, Manhood in America: A Cultural History (Free Press) was published to significant acclaim. The San Francisco Chronicle called it "the most wide-ranging, clear-sighted, accessible book available on the mixed fortunes of masculinity in the United States." The book also received impressive reviews in The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post Book World, and The New York Times Book Review, which noted that this "concise, incisive" the book "elucidates the masculine ideals of the past 200 years…just as shelves of feminist books have elucidated the feminine."
In 1996, he also published The Politics of Manhood (Temple University Press, 1996) which featured a debate between pro-feminist men and the mythopoetic men's movement, best known through the work of Robert Bly.
His other books on masculinity include Changing Men: New Directions in Research on Men and Masculinity (Sage, 1987) and Men Confront Pornography (Crown, 1990. His book, Against the Tide: Pro-Feminist Men in the United States, 1776-1990 (Beacon, 1992), is a documentary history of men who supported women's equality since the founding of the country.
Kimmel is also a well-known educator concerning gender issues. At SUNY Stony Brook, he teaches, among other courses, "Sociology of Masculinity," one of the few courses in the nation that examines men's lives from a pro-feminist perspective. His teaching has been featured in newspaper and magazine articles (The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, Newsweek, People) and television shows, such as Donahue, The Today Show, CNN, Smithsonian World, and Crossfire. His co-edited college textbook, Men's Lives (6th edition, forthcoming) has been adopted in virtually every course on men and masculinity in the country.
Kimmel's written work has appeared in dozens of magazines, newspapers and scholarly journals, including The Harvard Business Review, The Nation, The Village Voice, The Washington Post, and Psychology Today, where he was a contributing editor and columnist on male-female relationships. On the basis of his expertise, Kimmel served as an expert witness for the U.S. Department of Justice in the VMI and Citadel cases. He is national spokesperson for the National Organization for Men Against Sexism (NOMAS), and has run workshops for organizations and public sector organizations on preventing sexual harassment and implementing gender equity, and for campus groups on date and acquaintance rape, sexual assault, pornography, and the changing relations between women and men.
For more information, contact the Kirkland Project office at 315-859-4288.
