Discovering Legacies: Fathers, Sons, Masculinities, and Equity Within Families

Abstract

In this article, I examine how personal experiences within my family and my homeplace communities have shaped 20 years of basic and applied research, as well as theorizing, on fathering and masculinities. I focus on how my practice of reflexive research has led me to discover legacies of masculinities across generations of my own family, including negotiation of racialized power and privilege. I review key concepts, such as kinscription, ghosting, situated fathering, and critical masculinities in families—and link them to political, personal, and interpersonal considerations that led to commitment within the field of family science.