Researching Men as Men

The presentation, based on topical research studies of the author, introduces critical approaches to studying men, masculinities, and men´s practices as a way to analytically grasp intersectional inequalities. As a sociologist herself, she thematises men, masculinities, and men´s practices in research studies explicitly as gendered categories inspired by feminist theory and CSMM (Critical Studies on Men and Masculinities). The topics covered include men in environment protection, men on parental leave and at childbirth, men as chief physicians in maternity hospitals, and most recent two studies, men as perpetrators of sexualised violences and an ongoing study into the intersectionality of gender and age in aging men. Let us discuss this puzzle together.

Iva Šmídová is a sociologist, an Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic. She has worked in the field of gender studies since the early 1990s in both research and teaching. She is a founding member of the gender studies community at the department. Her long-term research interests include critical studies on men and masculinities, gender relations in the family, sociology of health, illness and medicine, and bereavement studies. Her current research project is on Institutions of Ageing Men.