The December 2006 edition of the Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies (JILAS) will be a monograph dedicated to the issue of masculinity and violence in Spain and Latin America and will be edited by Jeff Browitt, Stewart King and Alfredo Martínez Expósito. Papers are invited in Spanish, Portuguese, or English from scholars working in any field in which the nexus between masculinity and violence (physical, sexual, psychological, emotional, symbolic) is explored. We welcome papers from activists and from academics in the Humanities and Social Sciences; we particularly welcome papers which are inter-disciplinary in approach and make a critical use of contemporary theories of gender, power, and violence. The deadline for submission of papers is May 30, 2006. Papers must be no longer than 8000 words and must conform to the JILAS Style Guide:

http://www.latrobe.edu.au/history/jilas/styleguide.htm

It has been problematically argued that violence is primarily attached to the masculine and knows no limits in terms of age, class, race, ethnicity or nationality. In contemporary Hispanic/Latino societies, as in many others, while women are sometimes complicit in domestic violence (abuse of children or homicidal revenge against spouses), it is masculine violence that is ubiquitous and rampant, whether in the domestic sphere of spousal and child abuse, in sexual aggression, or in the public sphere of extortion, robbery, gangs, sport, war and state violence.It has also been suggested that specific acts of violence such as terrorism, sabotage, and bullying are overwhelmingly performed by men.What role does masculinity play in instigating/condoning violence? What role does violence play in defining masculinity? How is the nexus between masculinity and violence portrayed, condoned, apologised for, challenged or simply ignored in media, art, sport, schooling, the military, legal codes and state institutions?

Many forms of violence are intimately linked to patriarchal culture and the historical residues of the now redundant divisions of labour, which hitherto had prescribed hunting and military action to males, while women were restricted to the affective and nurturing functions of the domestic sphere. Is masculinity now in transition then to more acceptable, non-violent forms of expression or indeed in transition to oblivion, along with traditional notions of femininity, or are we witnessing a recrudesence of male violence in the context of neo-liberal, global reordering, the silencing of progressive thought and the intensification of the security state? What are the rituals of masculinity that perpetuate violence? What is their discourse? What, then, are the cultural and symbolic representations of masculinity and violence in both historical and contemporary Spanish and Latin American societies? Is there a particular Hispanic masculinity bequeathed to both modern Spain and Latin America, which is imbued with violent tendencies, or is that a damaging stereotype? Do progressive, armed revolutionary movements promise to usher in a new society, a “New Man”, or do they merely perpetuate the cult of weaponry, violence and death? Is underdevelopment and poverty a cause or an excuse for male violence? In the light of the Law Against Gender Violence recently passed by the Spanish parliament, is legislation an effective answer?

Approaches may include (but are not limited to) the following topics:

media representations of violence literary/filmic/artistic representations of violence;

contemporary music and video/masculinity/violence;

 masculinity/violence/popular culture;

domestic, intra-familiar violence;

legal/juridical implications of masculine violence;

power/violence/masculinity;

masculinity/nationalism/violence;

masculinity/terrorism/violence;

female collusion in masculine violence;

religion/masculinity/violence;

 the patriarchal state and violence;

colonialism and violence;

 masculinity/violence/class;

masculinity/violence/race;

masculinity/violence/poverty;

violence and gangs;

reversals and variations of the ‘masculine-perpetrator versus female-victim’ model.

Submissions are to be sent to one of the editors below by no later than 30 May 2006:

For further information, please contact:

Jeff Browitt Jeffrey.Browitt@uts.edu.au

Stewart King Stewart.King@arts.monash.edu.au

Alfredo Martínez Expósito a.martinez@uq.edu.au

*Istmo*

*¿Por qué existe Istmo? *¿Qué es Istmo? *¿Quiénes hacen la revista? *¿Cómo publicar en Istmo?*

*Consejo Editorial *Redacción *Artículos y Ensayos *Proyectos *Reseñas*

*Noticias *Foro Debate *Buscar *Archivo *Enlaces*

*Dirección: Associate Professor Mary Addis*

*Realización: Cheryl Johnson*