Masculinity and Climate Webinar - Session one of three

The Climate Justice Working Group of MenEngage Alliance is hosting a 3‑part critical webinar series on the intersections of masculinities and climate change.

This session will unpack the complex intersection and influence of (patriarchal) masculinities and climate change, and explore pathways for community-grounded transformation towards climate justice.

This session will amplify insights from NORMA International Journal for Masculinity Studies, and the research article ​‘Care is not only the goal, it’s the way’: Working with men and boys for climate and gender justice, written by MenEngage Climate Justice Working Group members published in this journal.

Join us on 26^th February for the first session of the webinar series, where we will hear from the editors and authors of the NORMA Special Issue on why this work and why now.

This session will introduce the relationship between masculinities and climate change, and will feature the article’s editors and authors — including NORMA editors Jeff Hearn, Martin Hultman, and Tamara Shefer.

This event will be recorded and the link to view the recording will be sent to all participants who register online. It will also be posted on the MenEngage YouTube channel. 

The program schedule is given after the bio of the participants below.

Participant’s Bio

Sari Kamiyama (she/​​her) 
Born in 2000, Sari Kamiyama is a feminist researcher and activist focusing on masculinities in Japan and beyond. She is currently a master’s student at Waseda University Graduate School in Tokyo, Japan. She is the founder of the International Men and Masculinities Studies Society (IMSS) in Tokyo and an individual member of the MenEngage Alliance. Within MenEngage, she co-authored the academic article ​“Care is not only the goal, it’s the way”: Working with men and boys for climate and gender justice for NORMA: International Journal for Masculinity Studies as part of the Climate Justice Working Group. She has also co-created the comic series ​“Boyhood Meets the Algorithm” as an illustrator with the Youth Reference Group, exploring masculinities in the digital age. 

Jeff Hearn (he/​​him)

Jeff Hearn is a Senior Professor in Human Geography at Örebro University, Sweden;  Professor of Sociology, University of Huddersfield, UK; Emeritus Professor, Hanken School of Economics, Finland; and Extraordinary Professor, Women’s and Gender Studies, University of Western Cape, South Africa. His research focuses on critical studies on men and masculinities, gendered power relations, organisations and work, violence, transnational processes, ICTs, ageing, and social change from feminist and intersectional perspectives.

He has worked extensively across sociology, gender studies, social policy, organisation studies, and human geography, contributing to international collaborations on gender equality, violence prevention, and transnational feminist research.

Jeff is a long-standing contributor to NORMA: International Journal for Masculinity Studies, including co-editing a recent special issue on men, masculinities, and the (m)Anthropocene. His work bridges academic research, policy engagement, and activist scholarship on gender justice and social sustainability.

Martin Hultman (he/​​his)

Martin Hultman is a professor of sociology with a specialization in science and technology studies (STS).

For the past twenty years, he has researched, taught and participated in the societal debate primarily in four areas: energy, climate, environmental legislation and economics. Within these, he has zoomed in on climate obstruction, gender, masculinities, the Rights of Nature, as well as ecopreneurship and the circular economy. His interdisciplinary contemporary and historical research deals with human existence on earth together with other creatures. The research asks questions such as: How can we shape just and caring societies within the planetary boundaries of the earth? Among Hultman’s books we find: Climate Obstruction (2022); Att ställa frågan — Att våga omställning (2021); Naturens rättigheter (2019); Ecological Masculinities (2018).

Tamara Shefer (she/​​her)

Tamara Shefer is Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of the Western Cape, Cape Town.. Her scholarship has foregrounded the study of gender and sexualities within postcolonial, decolonial, transnational feminist and critical masculinities thinking, with particular emphasis on young people. She is currently engaged with re-conceptualising academic knowledge with emphasis on embodied, affective, feminist, decolonial pedagogies and research, including collaborations across art and activism and hydrofeminist thinking with oceans and water. Recent edited volumes include: Reimagining social justice scholarship: creating decolonial feminisms in South Africa and beyond (2026); Decolonial feminisms, decolonising feminisms  (2026); Hydrofeminist thinking with ocean/​​s: Political and scholarly possibilities (2024) and the Routledge Handbook of Global Feminisms and Gender Studies (Torres, Pinto, Shefer & Hearn, 2025).  She was also editor on the 2020 Routledge Handbook of Masculinity Studies, and more recently co-editor on this special edition being launched on Men, Masculinities and the Planet at the end of (M)Anthropocene (2025).

laxman belbase (name only)

laxman is a social worker and gender justice activist from Nepal with over two decades of experience in gender equality, social justice, and human rights advocacy. laxman is currently engaged with MenEngage Alliance, where he contributes to global efforts to engage men and boys in advancing gender equality, promoting LGBTIQ rights, climate justice, and child rights. laxman previously helped establish MenEngage Nepal and served as MenEngage South Asia Coordinator (2009 – 2013).

Before joining MenEngage globally, laxman was Global Gender & Health Advisor at Save the Children Sweden, supporting gender equality policy development, program guidance, and capacity building across international offices. laxman has provided technical assistance to NGOs, UN agencies, and governments across multiple regions.

Laxman also serves as part-time faculty at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University, teaching ​“Masculinities in International Affairs,” while remaining active in global gender justice networks and advocacy initiatives.

Khurram (he/​​him)

Khurram is a poet. As an artist-academic he enjoys working in community-focused projects and his interests lie at the intersection of disability studies, environmentalism, and decolonial practices. He has a deep-seated fondness for manga & animé. 

Sohanur Rahman  (he/​​him)

Sohanur Rahman is a climate justice activist and youth advocate from Bangladesh, working at the intersection of environmental sustainability, social justice, and youth empowerment in a context of restricted civic space. A survivor of the 2007 super-cyclone Sidr, he became committed early on to supporting vulnerable communities affected by climate-induced disasters.

In 2016, he founded YouthNet for Climate Justice, an initiative focused on raising climate awareness among young people and strengthening youth engagement in climate advocacy. Under his leadership, YouthNet has contributed to national climate policy debates, including a campaign that helped the Parliament of Bangladesh declare the climate crisis a planetary emergency in 2019, and advocacy efforts that supported the halt of several planned coal power plants. Rahman is also a 2024 Young Activist Summit Laureate, recognized for his leadership in advancing climate justice and youth-led social change.