On March 6-8, 2015, the Center for the Study of Men and Masculinities (CSMM) will host the International Conference on Masculinities: Engaging Men and Boys for Gender Equality, in New York City. The Conference is timed to immediately precede the meeting of the Commission of the Status of Women (CSW) at the United Nations. Twenty years after the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, the CSW will hold its annual two-week meeting, March 9-27, 2015, in New York. Thousands of participants from UN agencies, NGOs and national governments will discuss the progress made towards greater gender equality over the past two decades.

Those twenty years have also witnessed unprecedented efforts to engage men around gender equality. The CSMM conference aims to bring together more than 500 activists, practitioners, and academic researchers from around the world who are working to engage men and boys in fulfilling the Platform for Action adopted by the CSW in Beijing. It will review the success of programs to engage men and boys, share research-in- progress, discuss new and possible policy initiatives, and chart research needs for the future.

For this conference, CSMM has partnered with the American Men's Studies Association, and the MenEngage Network to build opportunities for dialogue, critique and inspiration across three days of presentations, panels, workshops, and trainings. The twin goals of the conference are: (1) To infuse men's activism in support of gender justice with the rigor and insights of the most up-to-date research; (2) to increase cooperation and ties between academic researchers who address various gender issues, and feminist activists, practitioners, and advocates.

CSMM invites all those committed to engaging boys and men in these global efforts to promote gender equal- ity to share their ideas, programs, projects, and research.

Some basic themes of the conference will include: boys' healthy development and education; involved fatherhood;
balancing work and family life; men's friendships; promoting men's health, reducing health risks and HIV, and supporting women's reproductive health and rights; joining the global struggle against men's violence against women, sexual assault, trafficking, and harmful traditional practices; engaging men in policies to promote gender equality in education, employment, social life, and the political arena.

Some specific issues might include: transforming fatherhood; working with boys and young men; challenges of reaching men in post-conflict settings; preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS; men and aging, disability, impairment, and illness; diverse masculinities; multicultural coalition building; challenging homophobia; un- derstanding and preventing gang-rapes and mass-murders by boys and men; engaging religious authorities; boys' education; challenging bullying, harassment, and domestic abuse; working with abusive & violent men; men and child-custody issues; campus programs for preventing sexual violence; men in prisons; men and the military; men and prostitution; gender-linked alcohol and drug abuse; depression and suicide, and other topics.

Presentations can cover research, policy, interventions, and activist work. Presentation formats may include: 3 -5 person panels, short one-person talks (with Q-&-A), workshops, films, art, poster presentations, informal roundtable discussions, music, and performances. We will accept formal academic papers but at the conference we will ask that presenters not read papers but to be more informal and interactive, within the context of language possibilities. The premium at each session will be on discussion.

The working language will be English. Sessions completely in Spanish, French, Arabic, and Chinese may be accepted but the conference unfortunately cannot provide the resources for translation.

Conference costs will be kept low to enable widespread participation, and some limited financial support may be available to those in need, especially from the Global South.

Proposals may be submitted online at: http://www.jotform.us/AMSA/CSMM_2015 and any questions about the proposal process may be directed to [email protected]. The deadline for proposal submission is October 31st, 2014.