Dr. Harry Brod, Distinguished Visiting Scholar in Masculinity Studies

Pioneering Scholar on Masculinity, Dr. Harry Brod Visiting St. Norbert College Professorship, Fall 2016

DE PERE, WIS.: The St. Norbert College Cassandra Voss Center announces Harry Brod for a visiting professorship in Fall, 2016. Dr. Brod launches the Cassandra Voss Center's 2016-17 yearlong theme, "Untied: Masculinity Now."

Brod is widely recognized as a founding figure of the field of masculinity studies. An author or editor of eight books, Dr. Brod will teach the first-ever “Introduction to Masculinities” undergraduate course at St. Norbert College. He will also lead a Masters of Liberal Arts class for faculty and staff on the state of the field in Masculinity Studies. Brod will also be involved in discussions of anti-violence around issues of consent from his popular video on this timely and important national topic: Asking For It: The Ethics and Erotics of Sexual Consent. “Without Harry Brod and Michael Kimmel, there would be no such thing as American Men’s Studies,” says Dr. Roy Jerome.

Masculinities Studies is the interdisciplinary study of gender as it relates to men and masculinity. As an academic field, it is an offshoot of Women’s and Gender Studies founded in the 1970s. Masculinity Studies considers what it means to be a man and the construction of masculinity--how does masculinity shape boys and men? For example, when is masculinity detrimental by limiting a full range of feeling and emotion? Or why do many men have shorter life expectancies? What are the social, political, historical ramifications of masculine identity and expression?

Brod has published widely on anti-racism as well as Judaic Studies. As a child of Holocaust survivors, Brod has long been invested in Judaic Studies. He will be engaging in conversations on Jewish/Christian dialogue while at St. Norbert as well. Currently, Brod is Professor of Sociology and Humanities at the University of Northern Iowa. He has a PhD in Philosophy from University of California, San Diego and his BA in Humanities from New York University. 

Brod has received numerous awards for his work in academia and within the community at large, including  a Fulbright-Hays DAAD Full Grant in 1976, the University of Northern Iowa Center for Violence Prevention Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013, the 2010 Regents Award for Faculty Excellence from the State of Iowa’s Board of Regents, the 2009 James F. Lubker Faculty Research Award from the University of Northern Iowa, and the Harry Cannon Award for Exemplary and Sustained Contributions to the Field of Men's Studies from the American College Personnel Association Standing Committee for Men in 2001, among others.