First Travelling Seminar          

The Travelling Seminar comprising of academic papers, films and activist narratives gave a broad overview of the range of work that is happening in various social settings on masculinities. The presentations spread over two days at each university comprised of conceptual papers, sociological/anthropological/historical studies, psychoanalytic perspectives, activist narratives (experiences from the field of work on violence against women), personal narratives (reflexive stories of men’s experience of transitions/journeys/their sexualities) and films on masculinities.

The seminar, as the title suggests, travelled to five universities in India, one each from the north, north east, south, east and west of the country and the University of Delhi. At each location the seminar was organised in partnership with local women’s groups and social science departments at the university.

The seminar was both an academic exercise in generating interest for further research on masculinities as well as a campaign to form a network of university communities that are willing to take up issues of gender equality. We were specially looking at the participation of young men because gender based violence is one issue over which we hope to generate discussion as well as form a network of activists. The seminar was held for two days at each location and was extremely well attended. On an average, 150-200 students, faculty and women’s group activists’ attended each session of the seminar. The seminar was divided into four sessions each day.

OUTCOME:

• The first formal academic discussion on the theme of masculinities at the five universities.
  
  
• The seminar series has been a significant pedagogical intervention on gender studies at the host institutions.
  
  
• The seminar series succeeded in creating a platform for individuals, groups and universities that were keen to take up the theme of masculinities within their work areas.
  
  
• To unearthed a number of researchers and individuals who had been working on the theme in isolation.
  
  
• Several students and faculty from the universities have subsequently started research in the area.
  
  
• The papers presented during the seminar series are being published by Sage in a volume being co-edited by Rahul Roy and Dr. Sanjay Srivastava.
  
  
• Partner organisations like Sakhi in Trivandrum have set up regional groups to work with men on issues of gender equality.
  
  
• A network of groups, students, faculty has been created for collaboration of work on gender issues.

LESSONS LEARNT:

• A follow up with some of the participating universities towards introducing masculinities within the curricula of the social sciences departments.
  
  
• A focus on assisting faculties in developing curricula.
  
  
• A web site that can provide a continuity of contacts/sharing and assist in circulating information to various communities in south Asia.
  
  
• Locating and building a network of researchers on masculinities in the south Asian region