Jackson Katz, PhD, plans to visit Cal U on Nov. 18 at 11a.m. in the Student Convocation Center to introduce students to his Mentors in Violence Prevention program (MVP).

    Katz, 55, of Swampscott, MA specializes in gender violence prevention education along with critical media literacy.  Alumni of University of Massachusetts-Amherst, he was the first man to minor in women studies.  He earned a Master’s degree at Harvard Graduate School of Education and continued his education to obtain a PhD in cultural studies and education from UCLA.

     Katz is the author of The Macho Paradox and Leading Men: Presidential Campaigns and the Politics of Manhood and the creator of the educational documentary Tough Guise: Men, Violence and the Crisis in Masculinity, which in 2000 was named one of the Top Ten Young Adult Videos by the American Library Association.

    Katz co-founded MVP in 1993 at Northeastern University’s Center for the Study of Sport in Society.  The program was created as an education model to encourage men to terminate inclinations of violent masculinity and gender violence.  MVP consists of simulation, role play, and discussion-based groups with a mission to encourage everyone to take action and speak out in defense of gender abuse and violence.  It is one of the original bystander programs, utilized to initiate sexual and domestic violence prevention in colleges and professional athletics.

   MVP is a leadership program working to prevent male violence against women.  It was created due to the problems in contemporary American masculinity, such as the connection between being a “masculine” male and being aggressive.  Male student-athletes are considered by the program to have the highest potential to serve as leaders and mentors for children to spread the message of terminating and preventing gender abuse.

   MVP was implemented by the New England Patriots, Boston Red Sox, NASCAR, and the United States Marine Corps.  It has also been adopted by the Australian Army and piloted around the globe by the US Navy.