Joint course on Globalizing Critical Studies on Men and Masculinities

Do men care? What are alternatives to toxic masculinities? Do far right politics come with specific ideas about masculinity?

Globalizing Critical Studies on Men and Masculinities is a hybrid extracurricular master’s course that examines how masculinities and gendered power relations play out across the global North and South. Across the globe, anti-gender politics have intensified, shrinking the space for gender justice and diversity. At the same time, political masculinities are shifting and connecting across borders. This course helps students make sense of these dynamics across different political, social, cultural and economic contexts and explore possibilities for alternative masculinities. 

This course brings together cutting-edge thinking with experiential learning, visual methods and cultural analysis:

• Theorizing global and international masculinities
• Decolonizing histories of men and masculinity
• Hegemonic, conflicting and transformed masculinities
• Masculinities in work, politics, faith and cultural production
• Transformative and participatory methods in film and visualization

Practical information and application

This course is affiliated with the Centre for Excellence in Gender Studies of Quaid-i-Azam University Islamabad (QAU) and the Center for Gender Studies at TED University Ankara (TEDU). 

• Course dates - weekly 2-hour sessions on Wednesdays from 15 April - 1 July 2026
• Course fee - free for EUR, QAU and TEDU students enrolled in a master’s programme
• Registration deadline - 27 February 2026
• How to apply - send a brief motivation statement and proof of your enrolment in an EUR master’s programme OR one of the partner institutions to the email address below
• Application and questions (incl course fee) - contact criticalmasculinities@iss.nl

Teaching methods

In a diverse, transnational classroom, students learn from one another across different contexts through:

• Lectures
• Tutorials and workshops
• Film screenings
• Group-based creative assignments

Course benefits

• Global perspectives
• Cutting-edge gender studies
• Real-world case insights
• Learn with expert scholars
• Cross-cultural classroom dialogue with students living in the Netherlands, Pakistan and Turkey

Including experts:

• Dr Alia Amirali, QAU
• Dr Selin Akyüz, TEDU
• Roland Alvarez Chavez, ISS Erasmus
• Professor Ruard Ganzevoort, ISS Erasmus