Training students in the sociology of gender and sexualities

SummaryThe creation of the mediation, social intervention, solidarity (MISS) master in Toulouse-Le Mirail university, which is the only professional masters degree in France genuinely including the questions of masculinities2, gives us the opportunity to scrutinize the foundations for thinking and teaching gender and sexualities issues. In addition to academic knowledge which one must admit, most of the time builds up only after social movements (feminist, antisexist and GLBTI movements), this paper addresses the epistemological framework of this training. It focuses on the means of developing a non-androcentric and non-heteronormative analysis incorporating men, masculinity and sexual diversity. It then deals with the issues raised by the involvement of « non-female » (male) teachers in the study of gender.