International Men’s Day

19 November 2024

November 19th is International Men’s Day, which recognises “worldwide the positive value men bring to the world, their families and communities […] highlight[ing] positive role models and raise awareness of men’s well-being”. The official theme for 2024 is “Positive Male Role Models”. This information has been taking from the official site. You can read more on International Men’s Day from their website here.

In the spirit of this day, we have compiled some of our titles looking at men’s studies right below, but you can also browse our website by Subject: Gender Studies and Sexuality here for more.

Following that, we have put together a small collection of some of our open access titles looking at men’s studies. You can browse our full collection of Open Access Gender Studies here, all entirely free to read, as well as in other subjects.

Further down, we have also listed some relevant journals.

At the bottom of this blog, we have attached four recent and relevant external author materials, including a BBC article, a Telegraph article, an author podcast interview, and a university interview with editors.

Click here to expand text for the details.

We have also attached six of our previous Berghahn Blog Materials that are tied to Men’s Studies.

Click here to expand text for more details.

Lastly, we want to highlight our ongoing sale, which some of the titles in this blog are included in.

Click here to expand text for more details.

In 2024, Berghahn Books is celebrating 30 years as a family-run press, and we want to thank you for your support! To celebrate, we are offering 30% off our top 30 all-time bestsellers in each of our biggest subjects. As well as 30% off our frontlist titles from January to June of 2024! Use code BERGHAHN30 for 30% off, available in all formats until December 31st, 2024.

Please click here to browse our full selection of titles on sale now!


Featured Books in Gender Studies looking at Men’s Studies


This title is currently on sale! enter code BERGHAHN30 in the cart for 30% off!

Intimate Histories

African Americans and Germany since 1933

Nadja Klopprogge

Intimate Histories focuses on intimate relations as sites of shared pasts connecting African American and German history in the years between 1933 and 1990. By tracing topics that include anti-miscegenation laws, forced sterilization, casual sexual encounters, marriage, and friendships, Intimate Histories broadens our understanding of African American–German relations during the so-called “century of extremes.”

Volume 12, Explorations in Culture and International History

Read freely available introduction here.


Fixing Motorcycles in Post-Repair Societies

Technology, Aesthetics and Gender

Gabriel Jderu

“The book draws attention to an overlooked area of mobility studies—repair and maintenance. It inventively demonstrates the social and political dimensions of technology and is especially attentive to gender distinctions and differences.” • Suzanne Ferriss, Nova Southeastern University

Volume 3, Politics of Repair

Read freely available introduction here.


Ӧmie Sex Affiliation

A Papuan Nature

Marta Rohatynskyj

The practice of affiliating the female child with the mother and the male child with the father was considered a rare and inexplicable practice in Papua New Guinean ethnography at the time the original data was collected some forty years ago. Marta Rohatynskyj undertakes a shift in her analytical concepts of kinship studies to reveal the deep-seated disjuncture between female and male that this practice represents. The author argues that this practice is associated with a totemic/animistic ontology and has currency in a particular type of Melanesian society.

Volume 14, ASAO Studies in Pacific Anthropology

Read freely available introduction here.


Gender, Power, and Non-Governance

Is Female to Male as NGO Is to State?

Edited by Andria D. Timmer and Elizabeth Wirtz

“Focusing on the gendered nature of NGO-state relationships it offers a wide spectrum of case studies covering all regions of the world. Diversity is an important asset of the volume: diversity of countries-from different regions, of different sizes, from different type of states (weak or strong), but also diversity of types of NGOs analyzed, diversity of topics proposed.” • Laura Grünberg, University of Bucharest

Read freely available introduction here.


The Precarity of Masculinity

Football, Pentecostalism, and Transnational Aspirations in Cameroon

Uroš Kovač

“The author has not only written one of the few anthropological accounts exploring the relations between neoliberalism, Pentecostalism, masculinity, and the commercialization of professional sports, but also refutes too easily made assumptions about a crisis of masculinity affecting societies on the African continent and elsewhere.” • Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

Read freely available introduction here.


Medieval Intersections

Gender and Status in Europe in the Middle Ages

Edited by Katherine Weikert and Elena Woodacre

“This is a stimulating collection overall that contains a number of well-written contributions inviting any reader to ask more questions. The book convincingly shows what paying attention to the construction of gendered identities can bring to our understanding of medieval societies, their texts, and objects.” • H-Soz-Kult

Read freely available introduction here.


How is a Man Supposed to be a Man?

Male Childlessness – a Life Course Disrupted

Robin A. Hadley

“a groundbreaking book shining the light on men and their experiences, how men may feel when they don’t end up having children for one reason or another e.g. not meeting the right person, infertility.” • Guild of Health Writers

Volume 48, Fertility, Reproduction and Sexuality: Social and Cultural Perspectives

Read freely available introduction here.


Cinemas of Boyhood

Masculinity, Sexuality, Nationality

Edited by Timothy Shary

“The organizational scheme is laudable—Shary includes essays on individual films, auteurs, decades, and national cinemas. Future works on boyhood in cinema could build on any of these organizational categories to contribute to this nascent field…Highly Recommended.” • Choice

Read freely available introduction here.


Modernity and the Unmaking of Men

Violeta Schubert

“This book contains a wealth of ethnographic detail on kinship, marriage, and masculinity in rural Macedonia in the post-Socialist period.  With her focus on “the village scape,” Schubert adds fresh insights to understandings of modernity and the state.” • Deborah Reed-Danahay, University of Buffalo

Volume 1, New Anthropologies of Europe: Perspectives and Provocations

Read freely available introduction here.


Men Under Fire

Motivation, Morale, and Masculinity among Czech Soldiers in the Great War, 1914–1918

Jiří Hutečka

“Hutečka accomplished his goal of using gender to illuminate Czech soldiers’ motivation. He deserves praise for writing an effective and useful book that should be read by students and historians of gender and war.” • Journal of Military History

Volume 26, Austrian and Habsburg Studies

Read freely available introduction here.


Being a Sperm Donor

Masculinity, Sexuality, and Biosociality in Denmark

Sebastian Mohr

“An important, original contribution to the anthropology of reproduction. Mohr does an excellent job of presenting multiple, fascinating perspectives on this subject. The ethnographic material is superb and his framing of it is appropriate and convincing.” • Linda Layne, University of Cambridge

Volume 40, Fertility, Reproduction and Sexuality: Social and Cultural Perspectives

Read freely available introduction here.


Reconceiving Muslim Men

Love and Marriage, Family and Care in Precarious Times

Edited by Marcia C. Inhorn and Nefissa Naguib

“This volume is an important correction to various types of literature, from within anthropology as well as from other disciplinary fields… it will become a significant contribution to the field of masculinity in general and to Muslim men in particular.” • Leif Manger, University of Bergen

Volume 38, Fertility, Reproduction and Sexuality: Social and Cultural Perspectives

Read freely available introduction here.

Edited by Marcia C. Inhorn and Nefissa Naguib


Open Access Books in Gender Studies looking at Men’s Studies


Here are some of our relevent open access titles. Browse our full collection of Open Access Gender Studies here, all entirely free to read.


From Our Blog: Author interviews, author articles, excerpts…


AUTHOR ARTICLE
Pamela Moss and Michael J. Prince
Open Access

“Gaining insight into the effects of various configurations of power and knowledge, including future analyses of moral injury, toxic masculinity, structural racism, and political extremism, can open up more space to address the restrictions imposed on the burned-out soldiers’ minds, bodies, and souls.”

AUTHOR INTERVIEW
Theodoros Rakopoulos
Open Access

“The continuity here reflects kinship, clanship, genealogy, and ideologies of masculinity that cannot be underestimated. “

AUTHOR ARTICLE
Clothes, Men, Instagram – suits you sir
by Joshua M. Bluteau

“[F]rom the bespoke tailor’s shops of London’s Savile Row through to the social media platform Instagram, and casts an anthropological lens on men, their clothes, social media use, and notions of individuality.”

AUTHOR ARTICLE
Myths around Men
by Dr Robin A Hadley

“There are many myths around men, manhood and masculinity when it comes to both age and reproduction.”

BOOK EXCERPT
Does the Man Make the Motorcycle or the Motorcycle the Man? by Sasha Disko

“[I]n the discourse of motorcycling as a whole, proper masculinity was rhetorically disassociated from conspicuous consumption. The act of masculine consumption was concealed behind the twin pillars of modern manliness: production and possession”

BERGHAHN ARTICLE
A place for sexually variant and gender non-conforming America

“[F]eaturing titles edited by Katherine Crawford-Lackey and Megan E. Springate that emphasize the history and preservation of two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer settings in the United States.”


Berghahn Journals

JOURNAL OF BODIES, SEXUALITIES, AND MASCULINITIES

Editors:
Jonathan A. Allan, Brandon University, Canada
Chris Haywood, Newcastle University, UK 
Frank G. Karioris, University of Pittsburgh, USA

JBSM is a new peer-reviewed interdisciplinary journal that brings together critical studies of men and masculinities and sexuality studies. Its remit is to bring these two fields together to better understand the complexities of masculinities and sexualities, and especially the way they intersect with one another.

Current Issue: Volume 5, Issue 1: Viral Masculinities. Guest Edited by João Florêncio


BOYHOOD STUDIES
An Interdisciplinary Journal

Interim Editors: 
Jonathan A. Allan, Brandon University
Chris Haywood, Newcastle University

Boyhood Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal is a peer-reviewed journal providing a forum for the discussion of boyhood, young masculinities, and boys’ lives by exploring the full scale of intricacies, challenges, and legacies that inform male and masculine developments. Boyhood Studies is committed to a critical and international scope and solicits both articles and special issue proposals from a variety of research fields including, but not limited to, the social and psychological sciences, historical and cultural studies, philosophy, and social, legal, and health studies.

Current Issue: Volume 17, Issue 1: Global South Perspectives on Youth Masculinities. Guest Edited by Veena Mani and Shannon Philip


You might also be interested in these recent author materials…

BBC article including research from
‘How is a Man Supposed to be a Man?’, Hadley
Author podcast interview from author of
‘Children are Everywhere’, Dr Joshi
Interview with editors of ‘Girls in Global Development’,
Switzer, Bent, and Desai
Telegraph article by author Robin Hadley on
‘The crushing truth about being childless at 64’

In 2024, Berghahn Books is celebrating 30 years as a family-run press, and we want to thank you for your support! To celebrate, we are offering 30% off our top 30 all-time bestsellers in each of our biggest subjects. As well as 30% off our frontlist titles from January to June of 2024! Use code BERGHAHN30 for 30% off, available in all formats until December 31st, 2024.

Please click here to browse our full selection of titles on sale now!

MEET THE EDITORS: Dr. Samira Marty and Dr. Pardis Shafafi, the new Editors of Anthropology in Action

Pardis Shafafi (CNRS Paris and Designit) and Samira Marty (Binghamton University) are our incoming editors of Anthropology in Action.

Samira Marty and Pardis Shafafi are anthropologists who bring a wealth of practitioner and applied experiences to the journal. They believe in the public and discourse shaping potential of anthropological thought and in experimenting and developing ethnographic methodologies in urgent and contemporary environments. Their themes and approaches of interest speak to these experiences, with Marty conducting long-term fieldwork between Central America and Germany and Shafafi engaged with non-state armed groups from Iran, both focussing on political violence and grassroots movements and all the contradictions and promises contained therein. 

Dr. Pardis Shafafi, French National Centre
for Scientific Research, France 

Dr. Samira Marty, Binghamton University, US

What made you interested in the role of co-editors of Anthropology in Action?

Pardis Shafafi: Primarily, I’ve been looking for a way to collaborate with Samira in a formalised setting and this seemed like the perfect forum. Aside from this, while I’ve published and edited in different contexts, academic journals represent a new challenge and, to be honest, an area I have often wanted to shape and evolve. As an editor, I’m able to participate in a process that is often skewed in favour of certain kinds of academics and journals themselves. It’s exciting to be in a position to encourage more inclusive and non-traditional perspectives, and in a collaborative vein.

What unique perspectives do you both bring to the journal as new editors?

Samira Marty: As social and political anthropologists, Pardis and I bring a wealth of practitioner and applied experiences to the journal. My work is informed by long-term fieldwork between Central America and Germany, where I focus on the complex dynamics of political violence and transnational solidarity from a grassroots perspective. These experiences have profoundly impacted my approach to anthropology, and I believe in the power of ethnographic methodologies to address urgent and contemporary issues. I’m also strongly committed to bringing insights outside of institutional anthropology back to the table—mostly because I’ve worked in fields I’ve been active in, such as food, journalism, policy advisory, emerging tech, and special education.

Pardis Shafafi: In my current role as an anthropology practitioner in design, I’m focused on analysing societal changes and how they impact our social relations and global perspectives. Much of my work is centred on emerging technologies, where I teach and train critical thinking, ethical practices and rigorous research as an antidote to unintended harms which may arise in these fields. Although not immediately obvious, my research interests lie in grassroots political movements, state violence and collective trauma-work to inform each other, at macro and micro levels. These layers of complexity and their manifestation in the everyday inspire much of my work. Like Samira, I am driven by a belief in a more public-facing anthropology and our combined experiences inform our commitment to exploring and developing ethnographic methods that are both innovative and responsive to the challenges of our time- whether in the field of AI in healthcare, or organising political movements in the diaspora.

What is your vision for the journal during your tenure?

Samira Marty: Our vision is to feature cutting-edge and thought-provoking scholarship that errs on the side of creative, critical, and daring. We really strive to push the boundaries of the more conventional academic discourse in AiA. That’s why we’re especially welcoming contributions that explore emerging and timely topics that are often neglected in scholarly discourse, such as the entangled lives we lead with advancing technologies, the public discourses surrounding genocide, or the application of design thinking for systems change, to name a few. Whether it’s exploring the everyday life implications, or the macro-structural junctures that drive societal change, we want the journal to be a platform for scholarship that is as ambitious and daring as the subjects it tackles.

How do you see the role of ‘applied’ anthropology in the journal’s future?

Pardis Shafafi: We take the term ‘applied’ in the journal title very seriously. For us, applied anthropology is not just about practical application but also about deeply engaging with the core issues that define contemporary life. We are particularly interested in how anthropology can contribute to shaping ideal futures, both through scholarly work and real-world applications. We both have drawn these connections in our professional lives, as we’ve touched upon earlier, and are keen to develop this area in the wider anthropology realm.

What kinds of submissions are you particularly looking for?

Samira Marty: We want to see work that challenges what is traditionally considered the “canon” of anthropological scholarship. We strongly invite submissions from non-traditional anthropologists who explore the intersections of anthropology across disciplines and consider the broader implications of anthropological research for society at large. To facilitate this dialogue, we continue to publish shorter formats and have updated our guidelines for the submission section on the journal’s homepage. All in all, we’re interested in contributions that are deeply engaged with the world around us and not only analyze the world as it is but also imagine what it could be.

What significant developments do you see in anthropology, and which topics will be especially pertinent today and in the near future?

Pardis Shafafi: What I observe from my tenure in the applied field is that there is a disconnect between immersive design and technology research, which focuses on specific modes of knowledge production within these fields, yet the profound global impact they have on our lives. This disconnect happens both within and between these industries – and, what is more, it has remained a blackbox in anthropological interrogations. I regret this, as the impact of emerging technologies on our lives extends far beyond the defining products and services, leaving substantial imprints on social relations and political values.

Samira Marty: Those who hold the finger on the pulse of anthropological inquiry know how to differentiate between intrinsic and “trendy” research interests, which often reflect those of larger funding bodies. As co-editors, we’re dedicated to showcasing critical thinkers whose work may be underrepresented in journals that predominantly feature established scholars and prestigious grant recipients. Leading journals such as Anthropology in Action provide a pivotal platform for these emerging voices, and we’re so excited to take this challenge on.

Learn more about how to submit to Anthropology in Action here.

AIA is a part of the Berghahn Open Anthro-Subscribe-to-Open initiative.

Details

Women in Translation Month

Happy Women in Translation Month! Initiated in 2014 by Meytal Radzinski, this year marks the 10-year anniversary of this celebration. WIT Month is an international and inclusive project that aims to get the voices of women — writing in languages other than English — heard, shared and discussed. There is a large gender disparity in translated literature, as demonstrated on the graphs below*. For example, women make up, at most, 34% of translated literature, and only 36% of writing translated into English comes from non-European countries, highlighting the necessary intersectionality of this project.

In honour of this month, we have compiled a collection of some of our titles featuring women in translation down below. These range from women’s narratives to academic research and essays.

*These figures are from the official WIT website but lacks dating. For more information, and an incredible list of further resources, please visit Women in Translation.


Paperback Available in September 2024

Law, History, and Justice

Debating German State Crimes in the Long Twentieth Century

Annette Weinke
Translated from the German by Nicholas Evangelos Levis

“This book is complicated, and not for the beginner. It covers much ground, and quickly. Weinke does not so much create a usable narrative as destroy usable, but unfortunately inaccurate, narratives. Her book should be required reading for anyone producing new scholarship in these fields.” • Journal of Modern History

Read Introduction

Girl in the Pandemic

Paperback Available

Escapees

The History of Jews Who Fled Nazi Deportation Trains in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands

Tanja von Fransecky
Translated from German by Benjamin Liebelt

“Fransecky’s accounts of the individual escapes offer an interesting and important addition to Holocaust literature.” • Holocaust and Genocide Studies

Read Introduction

Cosmopolitan Refugees

Paperback Available

Gulag Memories

The Rediscovery and Commemoration of Russia’s Repressive Past

Zuzanna Bogumił
Translated from the Polish by Philip Palmer

“[The book’s] considerable value as a contribution to Soviet and post‐Soviet memory studies is undeniable. Bogumił’s work should become a must‐read for everyone who works in the field of the memory of political repressions.” • Soviet & Post-Soviet Politics & Society

Read Introduction

Punching Back

Heirs of the Bamboo

Identity and Ambivalence among the Eurasian Macanese

Marisa C. Gaspar
Translated by Roopanjali Roy

“Focusing on the manipulation of language and food, Marisa Gaspar’s monograph constitutes obligatory reading for anyone who is puzzled by the way in which the past challenges the future and vice versa”. • João Pina-Cabral, University of Kent

Read Introduction

Paperback Available

The France of the Little-Middles

A Suburban Housing Development in Greater Paris

Marie Cartier, Isabelle Coutant, Olivier Masclet, and Yasmine Siblot
Translated by Juliette Rogers

“[The volume] shows the value of investigating middle-class Western neighborhoods and especially of the historical changes in such sites. The study is a contribution to the anthropology of Europe as well as to urban anthropology and to the anthropology of class, and it usefully complicates and even debunks some preconceptions about suburban life, immigration, class, and politics.” • Anthropology Review Database

Read Introduction

The Women’s Camp in Moringen

A Memoir of Imprisonment in Germany 1936-1937

Gabriele Herz
Translated by Hildegard Herz and Howard Hartig

“These memoirs by Gabriele Herz have great significance in that they describe the experiences of a Jewish woman as well as that of non-Jewish prisoners, as seen by her, during the early years of national-socialist internment policy. In this sense it is a rare document of the literature of memories.”  ·  H-Soz.-u.Kult

The Journalism of Milena Jesenská

A Critical Voice in Interwar Central Europe

Edited and translated from the Czech

“Jesenská’s essays offer firsthand observations on a society that was slowly imploding between the years 1920 and 1939 [and] will certainly encourage lively classroom debates (especially in women’s studies, political science and history courses) concerning politics, the condition of women, and social problems of yesterday and today.”   · Slavic and East European Journal

A Year of Revolutions

Fanny Lewald’s Recollections of 1848

Translated, edited, and annotated by Hanna Ballin Lewis

“… if the reader wishes to hear the street cries of the revolution, climb the barricades …, experience the hopes and anxieties of a city gripped with political uncertainty and stripped of its trees from the boulevards, and witness the actress Rachel Felix sing the Marseillaise at the end of her performance …, then this is the book to buy.”  · French History


To see more of our titles on Gender Studies, follow this link.


Berghahn Journals

Girlhood Studies
An Interdisciplinary Journal

Girlhood Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal is a peer-reviewed journal providing a forum for the critical discussion of girlhood from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, and for the dissemination of current research and reflections on girls’ lives to a broad, cross-disciplinary audience of scholars, researchers, practitioners in the fields of education, social service and health care and policy makers.

Aspasia
The International Yearbook of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern European Women’s and Gender History 

Special Issue: A Hundred Years of International Women’s Day in CESEE

Aspasia is the international peer-reviewed annual of women’s and gender history of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe (CESEE). It aims to transform European women’s and gender history by expanding comparative research on women and gender to all parts of Europe, creating a European history of women and gender that encompasses more than the traditional Western European perspective.


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Indigenous Peoples’ Day

The United Nations’ International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples is observed on August 9 each year to honor the estimated 370 million indigenous people around the world. The day was established to recognize the first meeting of the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations held in Geneva in 1982.

This year’s theme is “Indigenous youth as agents of change for self-determination,” commemorating the Indigenous youth at the forefront of some of the most pressing crises facing humanity today. For more information, please visit UN.org.

Celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day by learning more about indigenous populations from around the world.

Continue reading “Indigenous Peoples’ Day”

An Interview with Series Editors – Peer Review Week

Berghahn Books has been a rigorous peer-reviewed press since its inception in 1994 and has always considered this essential both for assuring the quality and scholarship of our titles but also for providing insightful feedback for our authors to enable them to improve, refine and develop their work. Supporting early career academics is an important part of our mission and the constructive guidance that is offered by skilled peer reviewers can often be vital when developing a first publication. We extend our deepest appreciation to peer reviewers for their tireless commitment to ensuring the high quality of academic research in general and for the support and contribution they make to our publishing programme at Berghahn Books. 

Mark Stanton, Books Editorial Director 

To celebrate Peer Review Week, Berghahn Books coordinated several interviews with authors, series editors and journal editors to explore what their views of our process are and to thank our peer reviewers for the valuable work they do.

An interview with Howard Louthan and Roberto E. Barrios

Continue reading “An Interview with Series Editors – Peer Review Week”

Interview with a Berghahn Books author – Peer Review Week

Berghahn Books has been a rigorous peer-reviewed press since its inception in 1994 and has always considered this essential both for assuring the quality and scholarship of our titles but also for providing insightful feedback for our authors to enable them to improve, refine and develop their work. Supporting early career academics is an important part of our mission and the constructive guidance that is offered by skilled peer reviewers can often be vital when developing a first publication. We extend our deepest appreciation to peer reviewers for their tireless commitment to ensuring the high quality of academic research in general and for the support and contribution they make to our publishing programme at Berghahn Books. 

Mark Stanton, Books Editorial Director 

To celebrate Peer Review Week, Berghahn Books coordinated several interviews with Berghahn Books authors, series editors and journal editors to explore what their views of our process are and to thank our peer reviewers for the valuable work they do.

Interview with a Berghahn Books author

Continue reading “Interview with a Berghahn Books author – Peer Review Week”

Interview with a Journal Editor – Peer Review Week

As a peer-reviewed press, our journals are committed to instituting a thorough review process that is thoughtfully mediated by our journal editors to be inclusive, constructive, and ethical. Our journals pride themselves on being especially supportive of the innovative insights of early career researchers and it is thanks to the peer review process that up-and-coming scholars have the opportunity to have their research recognized alongside established figures in their fields. In observing Peer Review Week, we extend our utmost appreciation to the peer reviewers and our journal editors who are essential to ensuring the credibility and integrity of the scholarship that we publish as an independent press.

Vivian Berghahn, Managing Director and Journals Editorial Director

To celebrate Peer Review Week, Berghahn Books coordinated several interviews with authors, series editors and journal editors to explore what their views of our process are and to thank our peer reviewers for the valuable work they do.

An interview with Ann Smith, Managing Editor of Girlhood Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal

Continue reading “Interview with a Journal Editor – Peer Review Week”