Conference Agenda

Youth mental health has become an increasing concern in public discourse, especially during the covid pandemic. With a growing number of courses and guidance related to emotional support and self-management, emotional wellbeing has also become a significant focus of education in Finland (Ahonen, 2020; Brunila, 2012b). However, the connections between mental health and social structures, such as masculinity ideals, remain understudied in Finland and educational contexts globally. In my research, I examine young Finnish men’s views of the connections between masculinity ideals, public mental health discourses, and young men’s mental health.

The basis for this research is the understanding that gender is socially constructed and that gender, and other identities, are relational and performative, constituted in discourses producing gendered conditions of possibility for individuals (Butler 1988; 1990/2006). I follow Foucault’s theorisation (1982) on power and discourses, in which discourses are understood as power-knowledge systems. The mechanics of power produce different types of knowledge, which in turn reinforce the power-knowledge systems by defining “normal” or ideal codes of conduct. These norms constitute our lived experiences and gendered subjectivities, governing and regulating the way we express ourselves and our gender (Bacchi & Goodwin, 2016; Davies & Gannon, 2011). This research focuses on masculinity ideals, understood as contextual set of characteristics often associated with the behaviour of men, setting a standard for what is seen as appropriate behaviour (Brunila, 2019; Francis, 2008; Hyvönen, 2021). The first objective of this research is to examine what kind of masculinity ideals young Finnish men identify in their lives, how they align with these ideals, and how they view these ideals to be connected to their mental health.

The second objective is to analyse what kind of public mental health discourses young men produce and how they understand their mental health through these discourses. Following McLeod and Wright (2016), instead of defining what mental health is, the emphasis is on what the concept of mental health does, how is it talked about, and with what kind of consequences. Like gender, mental health is understood in this research as a socially and discursively constructed concept. Several scholars argue that mental health has become kind of “empty signifier” - a multifaceted concept with several cultural meanings attached to it, acquiring many meanings in everyday discourses, and used to justify many kinds of youth policies and support systems (Aneshensel et al. 2013; McLeod & Wright, 2015). The expanding focus on mental health has raised critical questions about the increasing governing that individuals are subjected to, justified with objectives of wellbeing. The concept of therapeutic culture has been used to describe how therapeutic vocabulary, practices, and “struggling with the self” have become an essential part of society and social life (Brunila et al., 2021; Brunila & Siivonen, 2016; Klein & Mills, 2017; Nehring et al. 2020). Therapeutic culture can also contribute to upholding and dismantling gender ideals by upholding prevailing normativities with gendered emotional practices and discourses but also providing tools to negotiate with these norms (Hyvönen, 2021; Kolehmainen, 2018;2021).

Based on the theoretic framework, my research questions are: i) What kind of discourses of masculinity and mental health do young Finnish men identify in their lives, and how are these discourses constructed? ii) How do young Finnish men align with and understand their mental health through masculinity ideals and mental health discourses? With young men, I refer to individuals who identify as men aged 15-29.

Analysing young men’s views on the masculinity ideals and mental health discourses prevalent in society and education can bring new perspectives to young men’s mental health and deepen the understanding of men’s diverse lived experiences.

Anti-gender discourse was central to the success of the 2019 electoral campaign of Poland’s ruling party, Law and Justice. Since then, the concept of academic freedom has increasingly been mobilized in this discourse as a signifier of priced Polish values, and ultimately, of how national sovereignty is perceived to be under threat. This paper asks, what is the role of the signifier of academic freedom in the anti-gender discourse’s re-articulation of Polish nationalism in the space of higher education?

The political project of the Polish government is broadly speaking based on a narrative driven by anti-liberal ideas that contest the main features of liberal democracy on the backdrop of perceived failed attempts of enacting transitional justice by political and cultural elites after the transformations of 1989 (Coman & Volintiru, 2021). While illiberal and populist radical right parties in Europe and beyond have experienced increasing parliamentary success since the turn of the millennium, Florian Bieber points out that a prevalent perception in public media that “nationalism is on the rise” is not attributable to a global shift of voters’ attitudes but to “the political and social articulation of these attitudes” (Bieber, 2018, p. 520). Andre Gingrich’s concept of neo-nationalism can be understood as one way to conceive of such emergent articulations “in a globalised period of aggressive postcolonial and post-Cold War readjustment” (Gingrich, 2006, p. 200). In his analysis neo-nationalisms in Europe emerge and define themselves against the supranational polity of the EU, and view EU elites as a threat “from above” on the one hand, and migrants and sexual and gender minorities as a threat “from below” on the other. Consequently, a crucial element of these new articulations is the mainstreaming of radical nationalist sentiment in national political cultures transnationally by way of what Grzebalska and Pető call a gendered modus operandi (Grzebalska & Pető, 2018; Paternotte & Verloo, 2021).

In the case of Poland this mainstreaming has been observed over time. Many leading lights of populist radical right parties, who in their youth mobilized fellow skinhead radicals through crude anti-semitic tropes, would later come to rally their voters against so-called “LGBT ideology” and “neo-marxism” in a register that is perceived to be more intellectual, dignified and acceptable (Graff & Korolczuk, 2022; Pankowski, 2010). As analyzed by Szadkowski and Krzeski academic freedom itself, a core liberal principle, has recently been invoked and appropriated by the Polish government to challenge perceived censorship through state assertive policy implementation (Szadkowski & Krzeski, 2021).

It has been noted in the literature that the domain of higher education and research in Poland plays an important role for the mainstreaming of radical national sentiment in two ways: 1) academic spaces and discourse lend legitimacy and mainstream flair to neo-nationalist causes as “politics of knowledge” (Paternotte & Verloo, 2021, p. 558); 2) educational institutions have an instrumental value for the ruling party’s wider political strategy of “counter elite-populism” (Bill, 2020).

Looking at the field of higher education in Syria, the available studies on educational leadership are very few (Abdalla & Al-Hamoud 1995; Dalati 2014; Khalifa & Ayoubi 2015), and the issue of female leadership in higher education institutions is still untackled. Women’s status, education, employment and enhancement in society has been emphasised and endorsed by Syrian governmental legislations and policies (Touchan, 2014). However, these regulations of inclusion and equality does not necessitate commitment and achieving justice (Deem & Ozaga. 1997; Ahmed, 2013). Lack of research does not mean that the problem does not exist; I analysed 22 university websites and found a complete lack of diversity words and speech acts in universities’ mission statements. In some universities, the proportion of female professors in top roles was also extremely low or non-existent. Responding to this issue of inequality and lack of discussion of this issue in Syria, this study aims to investigate the experiences, and perspectives of Syrian academic faculty members in current or previous leadership roles in various Syrian universities with the view to understand the barriers for female academics in career progression and the enablers for those who hold successful executive leadership roles. The research project was guided by the following research questions:

How do male and female academics perceive women and men in leadership positions?

What do female and male Syrian academics consider to be obstacles to their career progression and how these differ by gender?

What are the facilitating enablers that have helped successful Syrian female leaders in Higher Education to reach top leadership positions, and what are the struggle they face in their new space?

In addressing these questions, the study’s objectives are to investigate gender inequality in academia as it manifests itself in various settings, such as homes, society, institutions, employment, as well as the struggle and symbolic violence that female academics face as a result of invading new spaces.

This study utilizes multiple theoretical frameworks. I draw upon Pierre Bourdieu's schematic form: habitus, field, capital, reflexivity and symbolic violence to understand how societal structures and power dynamics shape individuals' perceptions and actions within a given field, and to examine how the accumulation of cultural and symbolic resources by men in academia perpetuates a system of patriarchy, thereby limiting the opportunities and recognition of women in leadership positions (1977, 1984,1986,1990). Additionally, feminist theories are used especially those that re read and analyse Bourdieu’s works in relations to gender, and the concept of reflexivity, and how individuals can change the internalized habitus through their practices (Fraser, 1989; Mitchell, 1991). The results of this change and the struggle female academics face is discussed through the lens of Puwar’s theory of space invaders (2004) and Sara Ahmed's concepts of "feminist killjoy", "the wall of academia" and "the politics of being included" (2010, 2012, 2017) to understand the following:

how women's presence in academia is often perceived as a disruption of the status quo and how they are treated as invaders in the male-dominated spaces and how they can change the space and make it more inclusive.

how the academic institution itself can act as a barrier for marginalized groups and the strategies individuals use to navigate and resist these barriers.

how the act of inclusion is not neutral, but rather it is a political act that perpetuates the power dynamics that lead to exclusion.

The framework also incorporates Connell's concepts of hegemonic masculinity, and gender and power (1987, 1995), which highlight how dominant forms of masculinity serve to marginalize and oppress women, and how the norms and expectations shape the academic career advancement of men and women differently.