Faculty Colloquium: "Masculiinity and Affect" April 2017

Sponsored by GSWS. Cosponsored by the Humanities Center, the Year of Diversity, the European Studies Center, the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, and the Department of Communication.

This event is free and open to all graduate students and faculty at Pitt or elsewhere. There is no registration fee to attend. 

See our wesbite: https://www.affectivemasculinity.com

 

This hands-on colloquium will feature a discussion-based session on precirculated readings, methodological papers, and case studies.

Masculinity/Affect Colloquium Presenters (preliminary list):
Pitt Faculty:

Todd Reeser (GSWS/French)
Brent Malin (Communication)
Scott Kiesling (Linguistics)
Paul Johnson (Comm)
Julian Gill-Peterson (English)
Gabby Yearwood (Anthro)
Julie Beaulieu (GSWS)
Aaron Johnson (Music)
William Scott (English)

Non-Pitt faculty:

Lucas Gottzén (Childhood Studies, Stockholm University, Sweden)
Jonathan Allan (Gender Studies, Brandon University, Canada)
Sam De Boise (Musicology, Örebro University, Sweden)
Natalie Kouri-Towe (Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Thorneloe University at Laurentian, Canada) 
Chris Haywood (Media and Cultural Studies, Newcastle, UK)
Gregory Seigworth (Communication, Millersville University): colloquium respondent

Affect and affect studies has some natural points of contact with masculinity and masculinity studies.  Masculinity scholars have often discussed issues of how emotion are figured in and by notions of masculinity.  Thinking about these issues through the lens of affect theory—which stresses such concepts as energy, force, and pre-conscious bodily sensation that are often seen as parallel with, but not reducible to, emotion—should provide an important opportunity to investigate masculinity in ways that are both consonant with, and innovative of, more established approaches within masculinity studies.  Our discussions of sexual assault, the discussions surrounding transgender identity, and even the political campaign of Donald Trump—all important issues both on college campuses and in the wider culture—would benefit from a careful consideration of the connections between masculinity and affect. This colloquium aims to generate knowledge around this topic.

View flyer PDF here

The colloquium will begin Thursday 12-2:00 with a discussion-oriented session with precirculated readings, and conclude with a conference response from Greg Seigworth Friday 4:00-5:00. 

 

Affect/Masculinity Readings for Discussion

For group discussion on Thursday, 12:00-2:00:

Ahmed, Sara. 2014. “Introduction” and “Queer Feelings,” in The Cultural Politics of Emotion,” 2nd ed. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1-19; 144-167.

Massumi, Brian. 1995. “The Autonomy of Affect,” Cultural Critique 31 (2): 83-109.

Thrift, Nigel. 2004. “Intensities of Feeling: Towards a Spatial Politics of Affect,” Geografiska Annaler 86 B (1): 57-78.

For Friday, 12:00 (optional readings for Jonathan Allan’s paper):

Berlant, Lauren. 2011. “Introduction” and “Cruel Optimism,” in Cruel Optimism. Durham: Duke University Press, 1-50.

 

For more information, contact Todd Reeser [reeser@pitt.edu].

The colloquium is coorganized by Todd Reeser (GSWS) and Brent Malin (Communication).

Graduate organizers: Nicholas Marsellas (English) and Steven Moon (Music). 

This event is part of a cluster of spring term events on masculinities. For more masculinities events, click here.