May 3, 2019

Birmingham City University

Deadline: February 15, 2019

Popular culture is saturated with images of men’s bodies that might once have been dismissed as homoerotic, pornographicor obscene. Now commonplace, images of sexualized male bodies inform understandings of contemporary masculinities and can be felt in the ways men experience and describe their bodies and represent themselves on and off line.

This 24-month AHRC funded research network will explore the pervasiveness of sexualized masculine embodiment across contemporary popular culture, and set an ambitious agenda for subsequent research.

The network steering group includes Begonya Enguix, Joao Florencio, Jamie Hakim, Mark McGlashan, Peter Rehberg and Florian Voros. Our first, free to attend event in Birmingham in May 2019 will set priorities for our network by addressingcontemporary concerns about men’s physical and mental well-being within the context of a sexualised culture and will focus on male body image.

We invite individual papers, pre-constituted panels, poster presentations, video presentations or position papers on topics related to masculinity and body image in the 21st century from any field of study.

The network will engage with a range of questions including but not limited to:

How is the male body sexualized across a breadth of online and offline media?

What does sexualised masculinity mean for the social and cultural construction of masculinities?

What politics underpin sexualised masculinity?

What is the relationship between debates around health and well-being  and sexualised masculinity?

How do neoliberalism, precarity, class, race, nation and geographic region impact on manifestations of sexualised masculinity across Europe?

These questions matter for popular debate and media reportage, the work of health professionals, educators and policy makers and we are keen to involve practitioners and non-academics in our discussions and events.

Please send a 300-word abstract and short bio (max. 100 words)to Professor John Mercer (john.mercer@bcu.ac.uk) and Professor Clarissa Smith (clarissa.smith@sunderland.ac.uk)

Deadline for proposals February 15, 2019

Attendance will be free.