Last year at Wagner College at Staten Island, New York, we witnessed a first in academic history with the first annual conference on male studies. It raised a minor media firestorm and for good reason. At long last there was a group of esteemed academicians recognizing and asserting the need for the study of men and boys that was not controlled by gender ideologues. In short, they want to do some good for a culture that is attempting to limp forward paying attention to only one sex.

Naturally there was vehement and often scathing resistance from those whose toxic hegemony over this subject has long been an unchallenged norm.

And how did the advocates for this new discipline react?

It is with this, the press release for the 2nd annual conference on male studies, to be held at the prestigious New York Academy of Medicine.

This post, I am beaming with pride to say, is the first notice of the new conference anywhere. The good people of the Foundation for Male Studies have allowed me to run this in advance of the actual release to the public. PE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: FOUNDATION FOR MALE STUDIES

FOUNDATION FOR MALE STUDIES APRIL 6 CONFERENCE TO FOCUS ON

DETERIORATING STATUS OF BOYS AND MEN.

NEW YORK: The Foundation for Male Studies will focus on the research and programs needed to reverse the downward spiral now effecting virtually all aspects of the lives of men and boys, at the Second Annual International Conference on Male Studies – Looking Forward to Solutions, April 6, 2011.

Edward M. Stephens, MD, FMS’ Founder and Chair says that in addition to the conference’s solution-geared presentations by leading authorities, the Foundation is calling for papers from academics on how to best deal with increasing levels of male unemployment, depression, suicides, high school and college dropout rates and related problems.

Marianne Legato, MD and Tom Mortenson will co-chair the conference at the New York Academy of Medicine. Dr. Legato, founder and director of Columbia’s College of Medicine Partnership for Gender-Specific Medicine, edited the first text on gender medicine, and founded the journal, Gender Medicine. A widely acclaimed author of works on men’s and women’s health, her most current book is Why Men Die First. Mr. Mortenson is senior scholar at the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education and the recipient of major national awards for contributions to educational research.

Others participating in the conference are Gordon Finley, PhD, Professor of Psychology at Florida International University, who will speak on the need for a national policy on fatherhood; Michael Gilbert, a Senior Fellow at the University of Southern California Annenberg School and author of The Disposable Male on coping with the cascading loss of male jobs, Katherine Young, PhD and Paul Nathanson, PhD, both of McGill University, authors of published studies on the origins and implications of misandry – the hatred of men.

Scholars seeking to submit papers for the conference may do so by writing to elfenbein@malestudies.org by March 15. 2011. Or call 845-362-0893