Masculinities, Gender Equality and Crisis Management

Mathias Ericson currently works as an Associate senior lecturer and researcher at the Department for Cultural Studies, Gothenburg University, Sweden. He holds a PhD in sociology with research interests in masculinity, risk and professions. His doctoral thesis, Up Close. Masculinity, Intimacy and Community in Firefighters’ Work Teams, is an ethnographic study of homosocial practices among male firefighters. He has worked with research projects on gender implications of educational restructuring within the fire fighter profession and the shift from reactive to proactive modes within the rescue service. His current research interest concerns masculinity, vulnerability and necropolitics in the case of the rescue service work broadened spectrum of mortality and risk calculation. Ulf Mellstrom is a social anthropologist and Professor of Gender Studies at Karlstad University, Sweden. Mellstrom has previously held professorships in Gender and Technology Studies and critical studies of Men and Masculinities. He has been an appointed research fellow at Clayman Institute of Gender Studies, Stanford University, USA, Department of Gender Studies, Duisberg University, Germany, and School of Social Sciences, University Science Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia. Dr. Mellstrom has explored the professional culture of various groups of technicians, including civil engineers and motorcycle mechanics, based on extended periods of ethnographic fieldwork in Sweden and Malaysia. He has also developed approaches to the understanding of the gendering of technology, in particular with regard to technology and masculinity. He is author of several monographs, edited collections and articles that have appeared in leading journals. He has since 2006 been the editor of NorMa - International Journal of Masculinity Studies (with Taylor & Francis from 2014). Key publications, see attached CV. Mellstrom has previously published with Ashgate, “Masculinity, Power, and Technology: A Malaysian Ethnography” (2003).