"Understanding, Sharing, Redefining: Conceptualizations of Masculinity Among First and Second Generation Bangladeshi Youth at Concordia University"

This study will provide a perfect opportunity to use the ideas and experiences of gender identities to critically analyze how different generations of these Bangladeshi youth conceptualize masculinities while negotiating the socio-cultural differences among normative Bangladeshi culture, Bangladeshi diasporic culture in Canada, and normative Canadian culture. Pioneered by Crenshaw (1991), intersectionality as a conceptual tool helps to analytically examine how compound blocs of socially and culturally constructed identities collaborate simultaneously on multiple levels (Sinnati, 2014). Analyzing two different generations of Bangladeshi youth through such a lens would provide a comprehensive understanding of the power intrinsic to this constellation of identities and exhibit how diverse identities intersect with gender identities in constructing multiple masculinities and femininities pertaining to a hierarchical relationship of power (Creese, 2015). It would also demonstrate how masculinities and femininities among different generations of youth in the diaspora are constantly transformed into hybrid forms through gendered conceptualization (Creese, 2013; Hall, 2013).

Themes: Community, Social Justice

Abu Saleh Mohammad Sowad

PhD, Faculty of Arts and Science