Caring Masculinities: Men’s Lived Experiences in Eurasia

The Anthropology Department and the Migration Working Group welcome Elena Borisova to deliver her lecture, “Caring Masculinities: Men’s Lived Experiences in Eurasia.”

Taking an anthropological perspective, this project explores the lives of men and examines the limits and costs of caring masculinities in three countries—Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan—vis-à-vis global capitalist transformations and the spread of discourses about gender equality. Eurasia is being actively incorporated into the circuits of global capitalism through mobility of labor, the emergence of tourism, the rise of large-scale infrastructures, and new logistical routes. This is accompanied by efforts to condemn gender-based violence and promote gender equality that have very recently become mainstream within official governments’ discourses in these countries, a change that has sparked heated public discussion. While women’s struggles are gaining more attention, the perspectives of men remain largely absent from these debates.

This study will break new theoretical ground by bringing together critical studies of men and masculinities and anthropological approaches to care. By exploring various facets of men’s experiences—their interpersonal relationships, modes of inhabiting the environment, spiritual worlds, and understandings of the self—the project aims to advance the concept of caring masculinities from an anthropological perspective and leverage it to encourage men’s engagement in gender equality.

Elena Borisova is an Anthropology Research Fellow for the School of Global Studies at the University of Sussex, UK.