Being a Man

INSTRUCTOR: Ruben Garrote

SECTION: U19

SCHEDULE: Tuesday, Thursday, 12:30pm – 1:45pm

In 2018, the American Psychological Association (APA) issued a set of guidelines for practice with men and boys that was critical of aspects of “traditional masculinity.” These guidelines, and the vocal response on the cultural Right, were the latest skirmish in the decades-long contest to define and redefine masculinity in the academy, the psychological profession, politics, and popular culture. This course will enter the fray by engaging in an interdisciplinary study of what it means to be a man, and what manliness has meant in the past and still means in societies around the world. It will offer definitions from fields such as anthropology, psychology, biochemistry, and philosophy, while also engaging how masculinity is contested in contemporary popular American culture.

Alongside this intellectual approach, the course will also have an experiential component whereby the students will explore attitudes and behaviors typically associated with being a man.