Events
5th Annual Institute for Critical Perspectives on Men & Masculinities
November 19 @ 12:00 pm - November 20 @ 5:00 pm EST
5th Annual institute for critical perspectives on men & masculinities
hosted by acpa’s coalition on men and masculinities
19 november 2026 • 12:00-5:00pm • ViRTUAL
institute
features
Summary Details
Date/Time: Thursday, 19 November 2026 at 12:00-5:00 p.m. Eastern
Location: Virtual (Zoom Link in Registration Confirmation Email)
Contact Info: For more information, visit our website or email cmm@acpa.nche.edu.
ACPA/NASPA Professional Competencies
Institute participants will develop their professional competencies in the areas of: Personal and Ethical Foundations; Social Justice and Inclusion; Student Learning and Development; and Values, Philosophy, and History. For more information about the ACPA/NASPA Professional Competency Areas for Student Affairs Practitioners, visit our website.
Schedule-At-A-Glance
12-12:50pm – Opening Keynote
1-1:50pm – Breakout Sessions
2-2:50pm – Breakout Sessions
3-3:50pm – Breakout Sessions
4-4:50pm Closing Keynote
keynote
speakers
Opening Keynote
Mark Carbonara, Ed.D., Assistant Vice President for Community Engagement, Dominican University
Dr. Mark Carbonara serves as Assistant Vice President of Community Engagement at Dominican University. Mark earned his undergraduate degree from Dominican University and earned a Master of Science in College Student Personnel from Western Illinois University. Additionally, Mark holds a doctoral degree in Higher Education Administration from Northern Illinois University.
Throughout Mark’s 15+ years working in higher education, he has developed and facilitated numerous leadership development sessions for faculty, staff, and students. Mark has been involved on a national level as a member of ACPA, as well as other professional associations and boards within the Illinois region.
As a social scientist, Mark’s research agenda surrounds college student success, college men and masculinities, as well as the intersectionality of men, gender identity development, and student-athlete status. As an independent consultant focusing on social-behavior development of college student-athlete men, Mark works with collegiate athletic teams around the country. Mark’s dissertation was a critical narrative inquiry study entitled: “‘Sup, Bro?’: Constructions and Perceptions of Masculinities and Gender Identity Among Division III Student-Athlete Men”. Most recently, Mark is the Co-Editor, and a Chapter Author, in the upcoming text through Emerald/Wiley, Critical Praxis of College Men and Masculinities: Experiences at the Intersections (November 2026 release).
Keenan Colquitt, Jr., Ph.D., Program Manager for Scholar Engagement, Phillip J. Bowman Center for Scholarship to Practice, University of Michigan
Dr. Keenan Y. Colquitt, Jr. is a scholar-practitioner whose research examines college men and masculinities, gender identity development, gender socialization, and men’s violence. His work explores how men learn, perform, negotiate, and challenge restrictive gender norms within higher education and other institutional contexts. His current scholarship focuses on toxic, productive, and hegemonic masculinities; whiteness and leadership; critical consciousness; discourse and gendered behavior; and the conditions that motivate men to resist harmful masculine expectations.
Dr. Colquitt is co-editor of *Critical Praxis of College Men and Masculinities: Experiences at the Intersections*, scheduled for publication by Emerald Publishing in November 2026. The volume challenges monolithic and deficit-based approaches to college men by centering intersectionality, agency, social justice, and the deliberate movement from theory to practice. He is also developing scholarship that uses popular media and shared cultural narratives to facilitate critical conversations about masculinity, race, grief, vulnerability, friendship, gender identity, care, and belonging.
A past chair of ACPA’s Coalition on Men and Masculinities, Dr. Colquitt serves on the editorial board of the *Journal of Men’s Studies* and reviews manuscripts for the *College Student Affairs Journal* and *Women’s Studies in Communication*. He received the American Men’s Studies Association’s 2026 Mark Justad Award for Excellence in Teaching and Mentorship.
Closing Keynote
Adrian Huerta, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Higher Education, University of Southern California
Adrián H. Huerta is a tenured Associate Professor of Education and Population & Public Health Sciences at the University of Southern California. He is an expert on boys and men of color, gang-involved populations in the educational pipeline, the high school-to-college transition, and student parents in higher education. Dr. Huerta was awarded the Early Career Award from the Association for the Study of Higher Education in 2022. He was a 2024 co-winner of the Anna Julia Cooper Early Career Award from the American Sociological Association’s section on Sociology of Education. He has secured more than $2.8 million in research grants, fellowships, and other funding to support his research. Dr. Huerta’s research appears in the Journal of College Student Development, Innovative Higher Education, Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, and other scholarly/practitioner outlets. He earned his PhD in education from UCLA.
Joshua Wallace, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Higher Education & Workforce Development, University of Louisville
Dr. Josh Wallace serves as an Assistant Professor of Higher Education and Student Affairs at the University of Louisville. Dr. Wallace received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in educational leadership & policy analysis. In addition, he received his bachelor’s degree in communication from Emporia State University and master’s degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in higher education administration. Administratively, Dr. Wallace has worked in academic success, tutoring as well as overseeing scholars programs for minoritized students. In addition, his research centers on the question:Who must Black men become to exist in higher education? Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach, his research uses qualitative methodologies and critical theoretical frameworks to (1) critically explore Black masculinities and Black feminisms in higher education and (2) examine how Black men in engineering develop their identities (e.g., race, gender, academic discipline). Guided by this line of inquiry, his research illuminates the impact of an academic discipline’s culture on masculine thinking and being, as well as moves scholarship and practice on Black masculinities toward an emphasis on divesting from patriarchy.
breakout
presenters
Session #1: Critiquing Normative Portrayals of Latinx/o Masculinities in Higher Education
Abraham Cervantes, Senior Professional Academic Coach, Academic Success Center, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Abraham Cervantes is a Senior Academic Coach at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a doctoral candidate in the Higher Education Administration Ph.D. program. His research explores how queer Latinx men negotiate, enact, resist, and redefine masculinity across familial, cultural, community, and institutional contexts. Grounded in the intersections of race, sexuality, culture, and power, his scholarship centers queer Latinx men’s lived experiences and challenges dominant understandings of masculinity and manhood. As a first-generation student advocate and higher education practitioner, Abraham is committed to amplifying marginalized voices, advancing educational equity, and fostering inclusive environments where students’ identities, experiences, and ways of being are recognized and affirmed.
Session #1: Men and Masculine Spaces in Men of Color Programs: A Statewide Perspective
Reggie Robles, Ph.D., Program Manager, LEGACIE+, Rio Hondo College
Dr. Reggie Robles is Program Manager of LEGACIE+, a men of color enrollment, retention and transfer program at Rio Hondo College. He earned a Ph.D. in Education from Claremont Graduate University. His research focuses on the experiences of Black and Latino college men experiences through college while participating in men of color programs. He has served as an adjunct faculty member at multiple campuses where he thought gender courses in Ethnic Women Studies, and Psychology departments. Most recently at Cal Poly Pomona he thought a first-year experience course for men of color college students on navigating higher education.
Session #2: Culture Creators: The Impact of Student-Athlete Status on NCAA Division III College Men
To Be Announced
Session #2: The Tea about the Fraternity: A Critical Autoethnographic Exploration of Masculinity at a White Fraternity
Musbah Shaheen, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Higher Education, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Musbah Shaheen is an Assistant Professor of Higher Education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His research interests include the impact of collegiate environments on identity learning and development.
Session #2: Masculinity, Mental Health, and Attitudes on Willingness to Seek Help in Male College-Aged Students
Aresh Assadi, Ed.D., Director of Counseling Services, Division of Student Affairs, University of Arkansas Little Rock
Dr. Assadi is the Director of Counseling Services at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) and serves on the board of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention- AR Chapter. As a licensed therapist, Dr. Assadi brings extensive education and experience in college mental health. He holds an EdD in Higher Education from the UALR. His research focuses on the intersection of masculinity and help-seeking for mental health, with an emphasis on the challenges men face regarding identity, shame, and stigma. He is involved in several projects through the Suicide Prevention Resource Center’s Lived Experience Advisory Committee.
Session #3: “A Man’s a Man”: Examining Toxic Masculinity in Social Discourse
Lazaro Camacho, Jr., Ph.D., Assistant Professor, College Student Personnel, Feinstein College of Education, University of Rhode Island
Dr. Lazaro Camacho, Jr. (he, him, él) is an Assistant Professor of College Student Personnel in the Feinstein College of Education, at the University of Rhode Island. As a qualitative researcher, he critically explores understanding how intersectional processes of identity socialization shape the ways historically marginalized students understand and navigate educational possibilities within systems of oppression and privilege. This work centers the lived experiences of Men of Color, discourse related to masculinities, and culturally responsive advising.
Session #3: Methods In QUEERing and TRANSforming Masculinity and Gender
Nevan Bell, Graduate Research Associate, Gevirtz School of Education, University of California, Santa Barbara
Nevan Bell is an Education Ph.D. student at the University of California, Santa Barbara who uses storytelling as a form of research and advocacy in his role as a scholar-pratitioner. He centers liberation and resistance as a praxis in exploring topics such as queering masculinity, support for college Men of Color, Latiné/x representation in STEM education, and strengths-based approaches in supporting early career faculty of color in STEM. Prior to his Ph.D., he completed his M.S. in Higher Education Counseling and Student Affairs at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. His work connects student development, institutional change, racial justice, and educational practice.
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
$30
Faculty/Professional Member
$10
Under/Graduate Member
$50
Faculty/Professional Non-Member
$20
Under/Graduate Non-Member
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Registrations can be paid by check, VISA, MasterCard, Discover, or American Express. All fees must be prepaid. Purchase orders are not accepted. Refunds will be given for cancellations received in writing at ACPA by 19 October 2026, less a $50 cancellation fee. Cancellations must be sent to info@acpa.nche.edu. After 19 October 2026, there are no refunds. ACPA reserves the right to charge a service fee of US$50 for returned checks. Registrations can be transferred to another participant with the same membership type for a $50 processing fee prior to 19 October 2026. The conference may be canceled or postponed due to insufficient enrollment or other unforeseen circumstances.