Kristen Barber Professor and Author
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  • Bio
  • Research
  • Teaching
  • In the News
  • CV
  • Talks
  • Blogging
  • Contact
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YOUR CART

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Barber's book, Styling Masculinity: Gender, Class, and Inequality in the Men's Grooming Industry (Rutgers University Press) is now available from the press here and at Amazon, GoodReads, Booksamillion, and BarnesandNoble.
  • Hear Barber on NPR's Marketplace, here and here.​
  • Barber talks masculinity and class in a December 2017 article for The New York Times,​ here. 
Styling Masculinity is featured in the Naturally Curly article, "10 Books That Will Change the Way You Think About Hair," by Chelsea Johnson, here:
  • "As the 'metro-sexual' term evidences, straight professional men are increasingly engaging in beauty culture. In Styling Masculinity, sociologist Kristen Barber focuses on the newly emergent high-end men's hair salon. Styling Masculinity describes how clients work to protect and project their masculinity while getting facials, manicures, and coiffed hairdos. We also hear from women salon workers, who face unique obstacles due to their close, physical interactions with clients. Styling Masculinity is an excellent pick for readers interested in men's grooming and gender relations."
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"Barber provides excellent insight into how women groom men while upholding their gender and class identities, and how masculinity and beauty are not at odds with each other. Truly a pleasure." -Jamie Mullaney, author of Paid to Party: Working Time and Emotion in Direct Home Sales

"What does it mean that contemporary men are going to salons, getting their nails done, or dyeing their hair? Kristen Barber examines how these practices are intimately related to shifting definitions of masculinity, and actually buttress gender, race, and class inequalities. A compelling and colorful read." -
C.J. Pascoe, author of Dude, You're a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School

"A deep examination of the rise of male beauty culture." -The New York Times
"A well-researched contribution to the sociology of work, gender studies, and consumer culture … Highly recommended." 
-Choice
Styling Masculinity makes The New York Times' list of "Stylish Reads"
Gift Ideas for Fashionable
Men, From Books on
Style to Custom Shoes

By ALEX TUDELA DEC. 7, 2016
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“Snow Beach,” $40, at powerhousebooks.com. “The Palace Book,” $65, at Dover Street Market New York. “Men of Style,” $29.95, at laurenceking.com. “Work in Progress,” $55, at rizzoliusa.com. “Men and Style,” $30, at abramsbooks.com. “Styling Masculinity,” $27.95, at rutgersuniversitypress.org.
Dr. Kristen Barber received her Ph.D. from University of Southern California. She joined the Southern Illinois University, Carbondale Sociology faculty in the fall of 2011 and is affiliated with the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department. Her research focuses on issues of Gender, Inequalities, Culture, Labor & Consumption, and Qualitative Methods. Barber's research appears in Gender & Society, Mobilization, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Sociological Spectrum, and Contexts, among other academic journals, and has been reprinted in multiple popular anthologies.

Barber is Culture Editor for Contexts, a publication of the American Sociological Association, Editorial Board Member of Gender & Society and Men and Masculinities, elected council member for the ASA's section on Sex and Gender, and has served as a grant reviewer for the National Science Foundation.
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