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Poet, Actor, and Writer
Opening Speaker
Sunday, May 19 - 1:45-2:30 P.M.

Carlos Andrés Gómez is an award-winning poet, actor, and writer from New York City. He is the author of the coming-of-age memoir Man Up: Cracking the Code of Modern Manhood, released by Gotham Books, an imprint of Penguin.  Nominated for the Pushcart Prize and named Artist of the Year at the 2009 Promoting Outstanding Writers Awards, he costarred in Spike Lee’s #1 movie Inside Man with Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster, and Clive Owen and appeared in the sixth season of HBO’s Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry. He has headlined festivals all over the world, including South Africa, Ireland, Spain, Canada, the U.K., and, most recently, as Guest of Honor at the Berlin International Literature Festival in Germany.

 

A former social worker and inner-city public school teacher, he grew up the child of a United Nations’ diplomat and indigenous rights’ advocate – moving twelve times before graduating high school while living in four countries.  He has lectured and performed at more than 200 colleges and universities, given a dozen keynote addresses, and facilitated countless workshops.  He continues to tour the globe.

Faculty, Therapist, American Men's Studies Association Past-President
Featured Speaker/Session
Monday, May 20 - 1:15-2:45 P.M.

Robert is professor of sociology at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and adjunct professor in the Department of Psychiatry at SUNY Update Medical University and in the Graduate Program in Human Sexuality at Widener University. His work centers around research, teaching and clinical work with men. Over the past 30 years Robert has help create a range of campus men’s groups, has led men’s retreats both on and off campus, and has worked with males who batter. As a marriage and family therapist Robert works extensively with individual males and couples. He has appeared on national public radio and his work has been cited in such diverse sources as the Reader’s Digest and the New York Times, particularly in regards to his recent research on men, emotional intimacy and male-male friendships. He has a special interest in “straight guys who get it” around ending homophobia and embracing feminism, and has conducted interviews with college males about how that happens in young men’s lives. He has numerous articles on such topics as raising boys, and on men, masculinities, and sexualities, and is co-editor of Sexual Lives: A reader on theories and narratives of human sexualities (McGraw Hill, 2003). He is a past-president of the American Men's Studies Association.