UC Berkeley’s 2025 Male Supremacism Studies Conference

With all of the really serious news in California – Gov. Newsom suing the Trump administration again, Valero closing its Benicia refinery, Kamala Harris will/will not run for governor, high violent crime, $5.00 a gallon for gas, biological boys in girls’ sports, Democrats killing a voter ID bill – we are ready for something a little lighter, news that is cheery or playful, or news to make raging feminists feel good in their REI hiking pants and sun-protective fabric shirts.

We found it.

The UC Berkeley “Male Supremacism Studies Conference.”

This inspirational event is Sponsored by the Institute for Research on Male Supremacism. Co-sponsored by: Western States Center and the Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies.

Here’s the skinny:

The Institute for Research on Male Supremacism is hosting an interdisciplinary virtual conference via Zoom from April 24-26, 2025. Our approach is informed by feminist, intersectionality, reproductive justice, social movement, gender/sexuality, and race/ethnicity studies, bringing this interdisciplinary lens to bear on discourses in right-wing, far-right, hate, radicalization, extremism, terrorism, preventing and countering violent extremism, and other related studies. The conference seeks to bring these fields further into conversation with one another and to orient researchers to understanding the shared belief systems of domination, dehumanization, and entitlement that underlie male supremacist and authoritarian projects.

I never knew that feminist, intersectionality, reproductive justice, social movement, gender/sexuality, and race/ethnicity studies were actual academic disciplines. When did that happen?

Here is an introduction to the Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies, where they have a special article – With change coming to Washington, does higher education face a ‘dystopian’ future? in the Journal of Right-Wing Studies (link is external) about how Donald Trump is signaling disruptive changes for colleges and universities.

Within the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues:

“The mission of the Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies, which is housed at the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues (ISSI), is twofold: first, to identify right-wing movements, flesh out their twentieth-century histories (how they aligned and how they survived) while isolating their novel aspects in the 21st century; and second, to develop and apply principles of how right-wing thought, ideology and organizational capacities operate to understand the state of the contemporary Right and identify its likely directions and successes.”

Here are the Panels at the UC Berkeley “Male Supremacism Studies Conference:”

• Biological Essentialism in Gender, Race, and Sexuality
• The Relationship Between Gender Equity and Democracy or Authoritarianism
• Logics of Masculinity and Violence
• Mapping the Manosphere and Understanding Networked Communities
• Demons, Humor, Disgust: The Many Operations of Dehumanization
• Examining Men’s Claims-Making Around Harm and Engagement with Countering Male Supremacism
• Youth Vulnerability and Responses:
• Influencers and Entrepreneurs Paving the Way to Radicalization
• Male Supremacism in Policymaking and Political Discourse
• How Do Male Supremacist Communities Present Themselves? Transmaxxing, NoFap, and More
• Surging Natalism and Nativism in the Shadow of Dobbs

I had to look up “Transmaxxing” and “NoFap”:

Transmaxxing is a controversial internet subculture that misrepresents genuine transgender experiences, often framing transition as a shortcut or “life hack.”

NoFap® is a porn addiction recovery peer-support website.

Lastly, if you are feeling social and brought your Klean Kanteen, and are wearing event-appropriate REI hiking trousers, sandals with socks, and a moisture-wicking Cotopaxi Tech Bucket Hat, these social hours and receptions are for you: 

Our conference includes social hours for attendees and panelists to connect and network on each day of the conference.

Day 1 – Virtual Reception suitable for participants in Australasia, East Asia, North and South America.

Day 2 – Social Hour: From Breakfast in Europe, to Dinner in Australia. Suitable for participants in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia.

Day 3 – Social Hour: From Brunch in Argentina, to Dinner in Africa. Suitable for participants in North and South America, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

Day 3 – Final networking suitable for participants in Australasia, East Asia, North and South America.

While University of California, Berkeley is a publicly funded university, “the activities and programs of the Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies are supported entirely by private donations. All donations are tax-deductible,” the website says, so it is a 501(C)(3). It is housed at the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues, within the UC Berkeley system.

Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies and The Institute for the Study of Societal Issues “provides an intellectual home for quantitative and qualitative interdisciplinary research on societal issues.”

I’m not sure how intellectual an experience it is dishing on the “Logics of Masculinity and Violence,” or if the “Relationship Between Gender Equity and Democracy or Authoritarianism” is any sort of “interdisciplinary research on societal issues,” but it looks like fun to me. I’ll see you at the 2025 Male Supremacism Studies Conference.

And in the meantime, perhaps Donald Trump can send the DOGE team out for more disruptive changes and to fulfill that “dystopian” future on colleges and universities.